United Talent Agency has amended its lawsuit against former MediaLink president Michael Kassan — throwing out its initial claims against its former partner to move those grievances to arbitration. The amended complaint provides new details about allegations of financial mismanagement against the famous advertising industry matchmaker and fixer, who criticized the lawsuit in a statement to diverse As an attempt to “distort”.
UTA insists that Kassan “eliminated any line between his personal expenses and his business expenses” during his two years with the company after UTA acquired MediaLink for $125 million in December 2021. UTA’s amended complaint drops multiple claims against him but accuses Kassan of threatening to violate the law. Non-compete clause in his contract. The complaint asserts that Cassin’s “foolish boasting” to the media that he intended to launch new business ventures amounted to a threat to violate his agreement. News of the big split between Kassan and Utah broke on March 12 with Variety’s exclusive report.
Meanwhile, Kassan pointed to UTA’s “broken promises” during his tenure and his efforts to discredit him with a lawsuit detailing his famously lavish spending habits.
“Resigning from MediaLink was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Cassin said. “But after two years of navigating Jeremy Zimmer’s broken promises, his insistence on raising prices for customers, and his attempts to cut employee compensation, I felt this was the right thing to do. I’m glad UTA has now dismissed every claim against me because the lawsuit The frivolous lawsuit you filed was nothing more than an attempt to discredit me regarding the reasons for my resignation.
UTA attorney Brian Friedman said the decision to drop the lawsuits — for constructive fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of duty of loyalty — was merely procedural and that it is moving to private arbitration while it seeks injunctive relief and damages in state court.
“The judicial procedure for filing lawsuits has been modified based on Cassin’s admission that he intends to violate the agreement and engage in competitive activity,” Friedman said. “Additional claims for financial relief have been submitted to arbitration as we continue to discover more thefts and other financial misconduct. Not a day goes by that we do not learn more about Kasan’s true nature. We will continue to amend the pleadings to reflect the truth. We do not dismiss the claims we add to them and place All monetary claims shall be in separate arbitration.
However, the amended complaint also came two days after Kasan’s attorney threatened to seek sanctions against UTA for filing a frivolous lawsuit.
“UTA filed a lawsuit frivolously and after receiving a letter setting forth the basis for the sanctions. UTA then dropped all claims against Mr. Kassan. UTA subsequently amended its complaint and requested a non-compete restraining order, which will also soon be dismissed because Mr. Kassan has The right to compete. “He actually paid $10 million to do that,” said Cassin’s attorney, Sanford Michelman.
The lawyer points to a $10 million severance package that included non-compete clauses that UTA offered Kasan before asserting that he was fired for mismanaging company funds. UTA opposes this offer.
In the complaint first filed March 12 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Utah accuses Kasan of using company funds for “manifestly inappropriate personal expenses” and spending “a small fortune on luxury travel.” The amended complaint adds details to previous allegations that Kasan used UTA funds to pay for an apartment for his driver, a credit card for his wife and other personal expenses.
“In 2022, Kasan designed a scheme to funnel MediaLink’s funds into his personal company. Specifically, Kassan abused his position as MediaLink’s CEO by ordering MediaLink’s top financial executive to pay what Kassan described as “semi-monthly installments” of a $950,000 “special expense” budget to MKI, an S corporation, according to stated in the complaint.
The termination of the business relationship came as a result of a conflict over spending, especially on luxury travel, gifts and privileges. Cassin also claims that he was quickly “sacked” in the UTA takeover and was not given any of the authority in his promised scope as leader. Cassin strongly asserts that he had a contractual discretionary fund built into MediaLink’s budget for such spending. Kassan’s team also confirms that UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer was a passenger on some of the private jet flights.
(Pictured: Michael Kassan, Jeremy Zimmer)