Christopher Mallick and Elias duel over debt
Christopher Mallick ordered to pay loans after he allegedly lied about the purpose of $15 million dollars in loans provided to him by Gregory Elias, managing director of Fire Glow Holding Inc. Mallick then went on to blow the multi-million dollar loan on the botched “Middle Men” movie which embarrasingly bombed at the box office and made Mallick a laughing stock of the Hollywood scene.
Gregory Elias (left) – Christopher Mallick (right)
Back in 2011, Fire Glow Holding Inc initiated proceedings against Chris Mallick and alleged that Mallick not only lied about the purpose of the loan, but about his own holdings and the state of the late payment transfer company, ePassporte, which John Christopher ‘Chris’ Mallick founded back in 2003.
Mr Chris Mallick solicited the loan saying he needed the money to pay off a divorce settlement with his ex-wife.
Embarrassingly for Chris Mallick, Elias learned that in January 2011 that Mallick had actually settled his divorce for a ‘mere’ $6.1 Million, after conducting an investigation of his own into Christopher Mallick’s private life.
Elias alledged that Mallick told him that he would give him a portion of the cash flow from ePassporte and proceeds of any potential sale of the company – which Mallick had valued buy a potential buyer at $80 million dollars.
Again, Mallick’s version of events didn’t wash. Media reports in September 2010 showed that Visa Inc. had severed its relationship with ePassporte, and Mallick’s company subsequently dissolved the following month.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis issued a ruling without appearing before the bench, granting the motion, thereby enforcing a settlement agreement by Fire Glow Holding Inc, based in Dutch Curacao, and subsequently entered into a final consent agreement with John Christopher ‘Chris’ Mallick. Fire Glow’s motion to enforce settlement argued that Chris Mallick’s opposition to the judgement was an attempt to shirk his obligations pursuant to the parties March 2013 settlement agreement.
“Defendant concedes the court’s jurisdiction to enter judgment, concedes the parties entered into a settlement, concedes the defendant defaulted and concedes the defaulted amount,” the motion said. “Defendant’s tactic now is to disavow knowledge of the language of the specifically agreed-upon consent judgment. … This ‘Hail Mary’ is entirely contrived and must be rejected.”
This judgement was another blow for Christopher Mallick, who foolhardily sank millions of his own funds into the notorious bomb, “Middle Men”, a sensationalist and fictionalized telling of his rise to fortune (portrayed on screen by actor, Luke Wilson) through the creation of an online payments processing company, ePassporte, which became the predominant method of payment for all online pornography transactions.
Mallick and his team of lawyers responded to Judge Duffy’s enforcement by arguing that Fire Glow “surreptitiously interjected” language into the consent judgement which contradicts their express agreement not to find him liable for wrongdoing, and thus allow Fire Glow to recover judgement on its fraud charge – rending the debt nondischargable in bankruptcy.
Fire Glow is represented by Aalok Sharma, Charles C. Kline, and Mark E. Gustafson of law firm White and Case LLP.
Christopher Mallick is represented by Thomas H. Vidal, Michael J. Weiss, and Nina Ameri of law firm Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson LLP.
The case is Fire Glow Holding Inc vs Christopher Mallick and will be heard before the Superior Court of the State Of California, County of Los Angeles. Case number is BC470633
[ This case is not to be confused with the 2015 trial Chris Mallick is scheduled to appear before to answer allegations that he failed to abide by the conditions of promissory note made to an alleged ePassporte victim which caused that victims mother to become fatally ill due to lack of funds to purchase required medications. Information about that case can be found here ]
(Source: http://www.law360.com/articles/550488/middle-men-producer-hit-with-12m-judgment-in-loan-feud)