Updated Andrea Iervolino with reaction at 9 am PT… The messy business divorce between Monika Bacardi and Andrea Iervolino has moved into fresh territory following a shareholders meeting of their former joint company ILBE (Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment).
According to a press release put out by ILBE, key resolutions agreed at the meeting included initiating legal action against Iervolino and giving the mandate for preliminary and investigative activities to top Italian law firm Pedersoli Gattai.
The shareholders also resolved to change the company’s name to Lady Bacardi Media S.p.A. to be abbreviated as LBM S.p.A.
The meeting on Monday marked the first official gathering of ILBE’s shareholders since Iervolino announced in late September that he was stepping back from his role as its co-founder and CEO to launch his own outfit The Andrea Iervolino Company (TAIC).
Contacted by Deadline for reaction to the move to sue him, Iervolino dismissed the latest moves by his former company and said he had engaged a lawyer to file a defamation complaint.
” I continue to emphasize that this matter is nothing more than a foolish gossip story, driven solely by negative personal sentiments and a desire to tarnish my reputation without any concrete basis,” he said.
Iervolino’s move to strike off on his own has sparked a bitter public dispute with Bacardi, with whom he produced films such as Ferrari, To The Bone, Modi, In The Fire and Lamborghini under the joint ILBE banner they co-founded in 2011.
Bacardi has accused Iervolino of trying to merge ILBE with the social media platform Tatatu, in which he holds a 96% stake.
When this failed to come to fruition, Bacardi holds that Iervolino started to transform the latter outfit into a production company, in a move she says was a conflict of interest and represented unfair competition.
The producer and rum empire heiress also says Iervolino does not own the IP to some of the projects on the inaugural slate of his new company. Iervolino says that none of the projects on the TAIC slate are connected to the chain of rights of any films developed during his time at ILBE.
Bacardi has also suggested that monies raised via ILBE were siphoned into Tatatu projects. Related to this, the shareholders also agreed on Monday to initiate legal action aimed at recovering the receivables accounted for and to be accounted for against Tatatu, again giving Pedersoli Gattai the mandate to oversee the procedure.
In his response to Deadline on Tuesday, Iervolino reiterated his claim that the accusations against him were false.
“I want to make it clear that they represent a completely inaccurate reconstruction of the real facts and circumstances. All the claims contained in these accusations are a distortion of the truth and do not reflect reality in any way,” he said.
“Furthermore, I confirm that my lawyers have already filed the necessary legal complaints for defamation, to ensure full clarity and to protect my reputation from these unfounded allegations.”
Other decisions detailed in the ILBE press release, included the dissolution of the current Board of Statutory Auditors and appointment of new members.
A new Board of Directors was also appointed with a term running to at least December 31, 2026. It comprises bankers Mauro Paoloni, Francesco Savelli, Francesco D’Intino, Mario Tornaghi, and Emily in Paris producer Stephen Joel Brown, who joined the board in August.
The meeting also approved the delisting of ILBE’s shares from trading on the Euronext Growth Paris market.
Iervolino has denied Bacardi’s accusations against him and is pressing on with his new company, announcing a new biopic about Ettore Bugatti on Monday. Deadline has contacted the producer for comment on ILBE’s move to initiate legal action.
