Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and a French vineyard: What’s the story?
Perhaps, this story could have been a script for a Hollywood movie. Hollywood superstars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are once again at each other’s throats in a court amidst their messy and long divorce battle.
In the latest, Brad Pitt has made some shocking accusations against his ex-wife Angelina Jolie. And it involves wine, wrath and a Russian oligarch.
What are the accusations? In the February 2022 lawsuit against Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt said that his ex-wife tried to cause him intentional harm by selling her shares in a joint property/business to a Russian oligarch with a bad business reputation.
According to Pitt, Angelina Jolie sold 50% of her shares in the former couple’s 17th-century Chateau Miraval vineyard in the south of France to a company owned by Russian Oligarch Yuri Shefler. Pitt argues that the couple had promised never to sell each other’s shares without the consent of the other and Jolie broke the promise. In the lawsuit, Pitt also claims that by being blindsided about the sale, he was stripped of his guaranteed right of first refusal.
Pitt in the lawsuit claims that he poured a lot of money and time into building a rose wine brand which is now a multimillion-dollar business. He says Jolie did not contribute to its success and by the sale of her shares, she tried to rake in the profits of his investments.
Who is Yuri Shefler? Pitt in his lawsuit also claims that Jolie meant to inflict harm upon him by selling it to Shefler. Pitt says Shefler, who owns the SPI Group, is known for his cutthroat business practices and hostile takeovers.
So according to Pitt, Jolie, by selling her shares to Shefler, ensured that her ex-husband would have to deal with not just any business partner, but a stranger with “poisonous associations and intentions”.
Is Yuri Shefler a Putin crony? Amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, several Russian Oligarchs have been sanctioned by various countries including the US. The Oligarchs are largely said to work for Russian President Vladimir Putin and also help him fund the war in Ukraine.
So, for Jolie, who visited the war-struck Ukraine as the ambassador of UNHCR a few months ago, selling her shares to a Russian Oligarch seems shady and questionable. However, according to reports, Yuri Shefler is not one of the Oligarchs who are in the good books of Putin, in fact, he’s said to be the opposite.
Shefler’s company had brought the Vodka brand Stolichnaya from the Russian government in the early 2000s; however, the sale was ruled illegal by a Russian court. Hence, Shefler, his company and the Vodka are all exiled from Russia.
About the property: The property was supposed to be the Pitt-Jolie family’s vacation home, grounds for the wine business and also the home to Miraval Studios. The former couple purchased the property in 2008 and six years later, got married on its premises.
Jolie-Pitt divorce: Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016 after just two years of marriage. The divorce followed an altercation between Pitt and Maddox, the couple’s then minor son, on a private jet that allegedly involved physical abuse.
Jolie has stated that her reason for divorce was to protect her family. On the other hand, the couple is still fighting for the custody of their six children.