Damon Thomas, a music producer who has worked with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Aretha Franklin and Anna Kendrick, is suing his former business partner for allegedly wrongfully eliminating him from their company and misappropriating its assets.
Thomas, who is widely known as Kim Kardashian West’s first husband, claims Harvey Mason Jr. intentionally damaged his reputation with people in the music industry in order to keep their future deals to himself, according to a complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The duo formed Underdog Entertainment in 1999 and worked together on projects including songs and soundtracks for such films as Pitch Perfect, Dreamgirls and Straight Outta Compton.
Thomas claims Mason forced him out of their company and also altered documents so the producer wouldn’t realize they concerned the 2016 animated hit Sing, which he says should have been an Underdog Entertainment project.
“On further information and belief, as if the theft of the ‘Sing’ project from The Underdogs were not enough, even while wrongfully taking the project from the partnership, Defendant MASON caused The Underdogs to incur and pay substantial studio and other expenses to develop musical content for ‘Sing,’ all the while knowing that he never intended for Plaintiff or the partnership to be a part of ‘Sing,’ nor to reap any of the rewards of ‘Sing’s’ ultimate financial and other success,” writes attorney Paul Philips.
He also alleges that Mason “absconded with funds.”
Thomas is asserting a dozen claims including breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, fraud and defamation. Mason has not yet replied to a request for comment on the complaint.
