Chris Fenton Accused of Masquerading as ‘Player’ as DMG Lost Millions
DMG Entertainment has fired back against Chris Fenton, the former head of its motion picture group who filed a $30 million breach of contract suit in February. Get a lot more facts about ChrisFenton
Within a counterclaim, DMG blasts Fenton as a disloyal employee who sophisticated his personal interests in the company’s expense. The suit alleges that Fenton “cultivated his persona of a ‘player'” within the sector even though losing millions of dollars.
“Fenton was terminated for his poor overall performance, gross mismanagement, and fraud around the companies he served,” the counterclaim states.
Fenton departed in February 2018, and alleges in his lawsuit that he was wrongfully cut out of the earnings from the company’s IPO. Fenton claims his put his reputation on the line to defend DMG from an SEC investigation into probable bribery of Chinese officials.
He also says he lost faith in founders Dan Mintz, Wu Bing, and Peter Xiao, concluding that they were engaged in risky borrowing against company stock to finance the obtain of a $30 million jet plus a $20 million mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. He also alleges that the founders have run the company into the ground.
The counterclaim accuses Fenton of sloppy business practices, such as failing to carry out sufficient due diligence or keep correct business records. “He either was unable or unwilling to carry out even essentially the most simple managerial tasks,” the suit alleges.
The suit also accuses Fenton of claiming credit for others’ work.
The suit states that Fenton, in 2016, price the company millions in damages on a deal to produce live shows in China featuring the Transformers characters. DMG alleges that the shows have been delayed, and that Fenton’s production partner, S2BN, allowed its licensing handle Hasbro to expire. The shows had been in no way created.
“Fenton was driven by his personal ego and wish for personal glorification inside the public eye; as a way to cultivate the persona of a ‘player,’ his priority was acquiring a deal ‘done,’ as an alternative to hunting out for the top interest of DMG CC,” the suit alleges.
The suit also accuses Fenton of producing misstatements towards the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a way to achieve admission, and that he used his membership “for his own personal acquire rather than for the benefit of DMG CC.”
The suit accuses Fenton of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence, and seeks $30 million in damages.
Fenton’s attorney, John R. Baldivia, issued this response:
“We locate it interesting that our client, who was responsible for placing collectively the deals for each ‘Iron Man 3’ and DMG’s ownership of Valiant (at the same time as several other thriving endeavors that DMG now brags about) is now on the getting end of a cross-complaint concerning his efficiency as a former DMG employee. As we've got mentioned before, we'll let the details to speak towards the truth about DMG’s actions, as well because the actions of our client.”
A DMG spokesperson shot back: “Once once more, Fenton is attempting to take credit for work he didn’t do. He made a mess of those deals, which other individuals had to clean up.”
