‘The Revenue’ producers beat contestant’s lawsuit in arbitration

NBCUniversal and corporations linked to its CNBC present “The Revenue” and its frontman, entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, have prevailed in a authorized dispute with one of many present’s contestants.

An arbitrator in Might dismissed fraud and breach of contract claims that had been introduced by the chapter trustee of Exact Graphix, a Pennsylvania inside decor producer that appeared on the present and later collapsed, discovering that the allegations had been “unsupported by competent, credible proof.”

The arbitrator awarded $7.1 million in lawyer’s charges and prices to NBCUniversal, leisure automobile retailer Tenting World Inc. (which is part-owned by Lemonis, its chief government) and manufacturing firm Machete. The arbitration ruling was revealed Wednesday in paperwork filed by Tenting World in chapter courtroom for the Japanese District of Pennsylvania.

“Given the entire failure of competent, credible proof supporting her allegations on the listening to, the Trustee can’t set up the required components of the fourteen causes of motion alleged within the Demand,” arbitrator Ann Jones mentioned in her ruling. “Even when one had been to seek out the testimony proffered by the Trustee in help of her claims credible (which the Arbitrator doesn’t), a number of of the causes of motion asserted by the Trustee would nonetheless fail as a matter of regulation.”

The trustee is interesting the choice.

“The choose disregarded the details and the regulation,” mentioned Gerard Fox, lawyer for the trustee. “Now we have loads of points with the method and the arbitration.”

The trustee had sued the businesses concerned with “The Revenue” in 2022 in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom, alleging fraud and breach of contract and accusing the present of inflicting its demise. The plaintiffs sought at the very least $30 million in damages.

The case was one in all a number of of complaints involving “The Revenue,” a preferred, eight-season-long documentary-style present about struggling companies that swap a stake within the firm for money and Lemonis’ steerage.

Lemonis was not a celebration to the Exact Graphix lawsuit.

“I don’t really feel vindicated,” Lemonis mentioned in an interview. “And the rationale that I don’t is as a result of I knew I didn’t do something unsuitable. I by no means would have thought a tv present would flip into this.”

NBCUniversal and Machete didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Exact Graphix co-founder Keith Lyden, who obtained full management of the corporate earlier than it went out of business in 2021, didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The Pennsylvania design firm appeared on an episode of “The Revenue” in 2015. The founders had been looking for new capital and assist to increase their enterprise. As an alternative, the 222-page lawsuit alleged, the present induced the corporate’s downfall.

The chapter trustee alleged the producers and Lemonis labored to divide the enterprise house owners and overburden the corporate with debt. The corporate allegedly needed to full tasks at a loss, most of which had been for entities Lemonis managed. The corporate owed $6 million on the time it filed for chapter.

“NBCUniversal and, subsequently Machete, created a mob-style rip-off that disparaged, denigrated, and falsely portrayed the companies they promised to assist, like Exact Graphix,” Lynn E. Feldman, the Chapter 7 trustee, mentioned within the lawsuit.

Lemonis mentioned on the time that the claims had been baseless.