A3 may be dead, but the legal war between former agency head Adam Bold and his former top executives continues.
Expanding on the wave of lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hollywood heavyweight attorney Brian Friedman has offered to help the much-accused, drug-addicted Bold recover and “embark on a program of recovery.”
In a city built on imagination, both literally and figuratively, you seriously can’t make some of this stuff up.
Responding to blatant accusations and what he calls a “smear campaign” in a lawsuit filed in December 2023 from former A3 partners Robert Atterman and Brian Chu, citing blatant drug use, sexual harassment, and public allegations that they “squandered everything” at the agency. In 2018, Bold’s vitriolic response and attempt to get rid of the initial lawsuit required a lot of major ups and downs in itself. For example, the head of the Bold Mutual Fund asserts that a lawsuit filed by Chu and Atterman suggesting that he would “intentionally drive the company into bankruptcy for personal gain is not only false but ridiculous.” In fact, in a scorched earth tactic, Bold blames all of A3’s recent downfall on the former CEO and president, as well as their lawyers.
Friedman, often controversial and controversial, is a constant target of pushback as Bold and his lawyers try to tie together many threads. (Read Adam Bold’s response here.)
“To recap, Brian Friedman is actually a straight face trying to claim that Brian Cho is an abused and abused person, and that Adam Bold is a sex scourge even though Friedman himself has been accused of even worse sexual misconduct,” the response reads in part.
However, Cho and Atterman, who are described as misfits, clearly have a special place in Bold’s Hell. Criticizing Cho for his “supposed right-wing conservative agenda, excessive greed” and Atterman’s “tolerance of homophobia, racism, and anger,” Bold’s efforts to tear the two apart make you wonder why he worked with them after purchasing A3 five years ago.
“Their actions, full of hypocrisy and manipulation, culminated in a baseless lawsuit, a desperate attempt to extract more money from Bold’s coffers under the guise of legal recourse,” the amended response filed Thursday night said in one of its more polite sections. “The allegations levied against Bold, in relation to mismanagement, are not only baseless but serve as a smokescreen for Plaintiffs’ transgressions.”
From “show-offs,” corporate retaliation, Friedman’s “greedy” lawyer, hypocrisy, failed computers, and Cho’s “alleged indiscretions,” these transgressions are examined at length in Bold’s repetitive 50-page response.
“Adam Bold never alienated staff or employees,” the lawsuit claims in a direct rebuttal to what Chu and Atterman said in the lawsuit filed in December 2023, before Gerrish hovered over A3’s digital sections and the rest withered on the vine to close the doors on them. Good this week. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing effort to launch a new company through the remaining former A3 dealers.
“The only alienation at A3 was by employees toward Cho and Atterman, specifically those who despised Robert Atterman’s tolerance of racial outbursts, and Brian Cho’s impropriety when interacting with women, gay and lesbian couples, liberals, and others whom he considered ‘inferior.'” -thans,” “Chu and Atterman’s elitist and vile views are well-documented and well-known in the A3 offices,” reads a Bold filing dated February 15. In A3, Atterman and Chu, due to their incompetence and misdirection from their lawyers, burned A3 to the ground. Furthermore, the accusations of personal misconduct against Adam Bold, especially regarding drug use, are serious and should not be taken lightly. Such claims, especially when made without evidence, are defamatory and can have serious consequences.
The filing adds: “Brian Cho should not throw stones because he lives in a glass house.” In a divide-and-conquer move, she declared, “Much of the tension in the company regarding bonuses came from Brian Chu who claimed that Robert Aterman was incompetent and was affecting his own portfolio.” Now Chu sings a different tune when the dollar figure favors him being friends with Aterman.
By attacking the duo and the “extreme liberties to the point of fabrication” that Friedman raises, Bold focuses on them by highlighting accusations from documents supposedly sealed in his divorce case, with his “now despised ex-wife.” Bold is actually embroiled in two feuds with his ex-wife and the mother of his child – a character Bold now disparagingly calls “an ex-wife with a documented history of drug abuse” who lacks “any weight or credibility.”
Friedman was repeatedly criticized in response by lawyers at Parker Chaffee LLP in Los Angeles, and he had a response of his own. A response that, when it comes to allegations of heavy cocaine use by the person jokingly dubbed “Father of the Year,” comes with a gentle, velvet-gloved hand:
Data in Adam Bold’s modified answer to Robert Atterman et al. Complaining is a weak attempt to change his destructive personality narrative.
Unfortunately for Bold, a fictional 50-page response cannot change the facts, history, or the harm he has inflicted on many A3 employees and others. Bold’s modified answer is full of inaccuracies, and too much information to mention. This is quickly evident from those in Hollywood who have had to deal with it over the past few years. I assure you that all of this will be brought to light when a large number of former A3 employees and others testify at trial regarding Bold’s destructive and weak behavior and management style. One wonders what his excuse is after hearing damaging testimony about the kind of man he is.
Bold seems to have been more interested in crafting a long narrative than in getting the facts straight. It is not a surprise to those who know him. For example, Bold claims that we, Brian, and Robert uncovered information in the complaint from sealed documents that clearly shows he is completely false and out of touch with reality. All of these documents are available to the public through the Los Angeles Superior Court website and can be obtained by anyone. These documents include an admission from his wife that she caught Adam on a security camera doing drugs in his closet while leaving his young daughter alone in the bathtub when he was supposed to be supervising her. As if this video wasn’t proof enough, his doctor’s findings – also attached to the publicly available documents attached herein – leave no room for any other conclusion. His doctor discovered that, after performing a CT scan on a high-resolution multidetector, he had “perforation and destruction of the nose with destruction of the bilateral internal turbinates consistent with cocaine use.” His doctor also found that Bold had a “congenital midline cleft palate and less likely focal midline destruction due to cocaine use.”
Out of the kindness of my heart, I am willing to take care of Adam because I know he needs help. A large part of my life has been, and will continue to be, focused on helping those addicts who are unable to give up get the help they need. We are working on programs that make it unnecessary for them to lie, and instead focus on being good people. My offer to Adam stands as I would love for him to one day be able to set an example of being a great and thoughtful father. I have been on a sobriety journey for 23 years. I actually understand why Adam would lie. He is an addict but I really hope I can help him start a recovery program. I feel sad that my sister overdosed a year ago and I hope Adam has the desire to get help and let me help him. Unfortunately, it takes looking at one’s mistakes and admitting them in order to be able to clear away the wreckage of one’s past. My hand is extended to Adam to allow me to help him. I will take him to meetings and help him on his journey to recovery. I know his life will change for the better.
For his part, Bold says in the lawsuit that “the plaintiffs’ audacity knows no bounds,” and that “it is time for the plaintiffs to stop hiding behind baseless accusations and accept responsibility for their decisions.” “Bold has always acted with integrity and professionalism, and it is time for plaintiffs to do the same,” he adds.
Of course, since A3 is mostly defunct as of February 12, just over a month after finalizing the sale of its digital and alternative divisions to Gersh, this has now become a reputation battle.