Verve's former CEO Bill Weinstein filed a lawsuit against the talent agency, alleging he was improperly ousted from the company on February 19 by two partners who were seeking to sell the company.
Weinstein's lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Verve partners Bryan Besser and Adam Levine violated the agency's charter agreement in connection with the actions they took to fire Weinstein earlier this month. criticized. The complaint alleges that Besser and Levine's goal was to sell the agency and deny Weinstein a stake. According to the complaint, Weinstein owns a 25% stake in Verve, which was founded in 2009 by Weinstein, Besser and Levin.
“Levine and Besser’s conduct was serious, malicious, and in violation of their operating agreement and their fiduciary and other duties to Weinstein and therefore actionable,” the complaint states. “With Weinstein now safely gone, Levine and Besser are seeking to sell Verve without Weinstein’s participation and have no intention of taking a cut of the proceeds from the sale, despite Weinstein owning more than 25% of Verve.”
A Verve spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The complaint details actions taken by Besser and Levine that violated Verve's rules governing board meetings and termination decisions. Verve also quickly blocked Weinstein's access to agency emails and documents and other agency-related materials.
“Besser and Levine chose to ignore the operating agreement’s dispute resolution procedures and instead conspired with each other to oust Weinstein from the company on President’s Day, February 19, 2024, without any notice, reason, cause, or opportunity to cure. ” the complaint states. To make matters worse, Besser and Levine claimed they would fire Weinstein for unspecified “cause” (a term defined in the operating agreement). The withdrawal of a member for “cause” has serious economic consequences, including Verve’s ability to redeem the leaving member’s shares at a significant discount to their actual value.