Brad Pitt has accused Angelina Jolie of forcing him to share his French winery with a British billionaire of “poisonous intentions”, reports The Times.
In the latest development in the Hollywood couple’s fractious divorce battle, Pitt’s lawyers have alleged that Jolie set out to harm him by selling her stake in their vineyard in Provence to a company controlled by Yuri Shefler, the founder of Stoli Group, a wine and spirits empire.
In papers filed before a court in Los Angeles, Pitt’s legal team says that Jolie chose to sell to Shefler in the knowledge that he would then seek to launch a hostile takeover of Château de Miraval.
Pitt claims that after buying the property together in 2008, they agreed never to sell their stake without the other’s consent. He says that Jolie’s sale of her share to the tycoon broke this agreement.
The documents assert that Shefler, who has British, Russian and Israeli nationality, uses “cut-throat business tactics and dubious professional associations”, which could “jeopardise the reputation of the brand Pitt so carefully built”.