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Freestyle faces new lawsuit from consultant - August 18, 11 a.m.
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WMBF news reporter Laura Thomas asks John Stine with Freestyle Music Park if he thinks the suit Brandon Advertising filed Aug. 5 is a sign of financial troubles at the park. Video by WMBF. |
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Roundbox Advisors LLC, a Winter Haven, Fla. consulting firm, sued Freestyle Music Park owners FPI MBE Entertainment LLC, according to new court papers filed Aug. 17. File photo.
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Editor's note: This story, posted at 5:52 p.m., has been updated with new information since the original 11 a.m. posting.
By Charles Perry and Michael Smith
The Chronicle
An Orlando area consulting firm has filed suit against Freestyle Music Park alleging breach of contract, the second suit of its type filed within two weeks.
Roundbox Advisors LLC of Winter Park, Fla., filed suit against the park Aug. 17 at 4:45 p.m., according to court records obtained exclusively by the Carolina Forest Chronicle and its sister newspaper, the Myrtle Beach Herald.
The suit seeks compensation and damages for $360,000 in consulting fees Roundbox says in court papers that FPI MBE Entertainment, parent company of Freestyle Music Park, agreed to pay.
The suit also seeks actual damages, special and/or consequential damages, punitive damages, court costs and other relief to be determined by the court.
“Rather than perform as repeatedly discussed and agreed, FPI MBE has through its agents purposefully frustrated Roundbox’s legitimate interests and ultimately made a mockery of and disavowed its prior representations and assurances under purely false pretenses,” the suit says.
Monday’s lawsuit is separate from a complaint filed Aug. 5 by Brandon Advertising, which also claimed breach of contract.
Brandon Advertising said in court papers the park still owes the local marketing firm $1.4 million in unpaid bills. Brandon Advertising and the park hashed out a settlement less than a week after the suit was filed.
Brandon Advertising’s suit was eventually dropped.
Park spokeswoman Michelle Cantey said she couldn’t comment on the Roundbox suit because the park had not been served as of press time late Tuesday.
“We will issue a statement after having been served and we’ve had a chance to read through it,” Cantey said.
In an interview with Chronicle partner WMBF News on Aug. 10, a week before the Roundbox suit was filed, the park’s director of marketing and sales John Stine said the suit filed by Brandon Advertising wasn’t representative of the park’s overall financial picture.
“We see our attendance growing. It continues to grow,” Stine said. “The trend is very positive. It’s moving in the right direction.”
Laying the groundwork
Weeks before FPI MBE Entertainment bought the park out of bankruptcy for $25 million, internal fighting and posturing threatened to jeopardize the deal before it happened and ultimately led to nonpayment of services, according to the Roundbox suit.
Roundbox says in court papers worked it with investors of FPI MBE prior to and after the sale of the former Hard Rock Park, which was bought out of bankruptcy in February and renamed Freestyle Music Park.
Those investors are identified in the suit as Thomas Hiles, Timothy Duncan and Steven Baker of MB Entertainment LLC, or MBE.
It also identifies Alexei Sidnev and Aleksandr Timofeev, two Russian investors representing Freestyle Park International, or FPI.
David Wasson, a representative from Roundbox, states in court papers the firm had been in discussions with Hiles, Duncan and Baker when the former Hard Rock Park was slipping into bankruptcy.
“Baker took note, in particular, of Wasson’s previous extreme sports and lifestyle-based project interests and experience that included work with the Gravity Games concept and the formation of a group of world-class snowboarders into a marketing team ultimately known as the Collection,” the suit says.
After the park was sold Feb. 18, Roundbox said in court papers that the agency and investors agreed upon a fee schedule of $15,000 a month for two years, totaling $360,000.
According to the suit, Wasson said FPI investors Sidnev and Timofeev conspired with MBE investors Hiles, Duncan and Baker to exclude Roundbox. Roundbox was ultimately ousted as the managing member of MBE, the suit says.
Sidnev and Timofeev insisted, the suit says, that FPI have majority control of the board of directors and retain veto powers.
Visit WMBF News for more video and further comment from the park.
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