Scooter Braun sued by former Goldman Sachs partner for $50 million

Music executive Scooter Braun has been called a ‘sheep in wolves clothing’ by a former Goldman Sachs partner who is suing him for $50 million, it has been reported.

Peter Comisar has accused Braun of deceiving him into leaving his lucrative Guggenheim Securities job and ‘aggressively courted’ him into joining a new firm he allegedly claimed would be backed entertainment bigwigs, the New York Post reported.

Braun told Comisar that Scope Capital Partners could raise between $500 million and $700 million from ‘close friends’ like Interscope Records cofounder Jimmy Iovine, DreamWorks cofounder David Geffen and Saban Entertainment founder Haim Saban, court records show.

Braun, famous for his public fight with Taylor Swift over the rights to her old music, even attempted to prove his connections to Geffen by describing him as his ‘godfather,’ according to court records. 

Braun in return has launched a lawsuit against Comisar calling for ‘judicial intervention to end Peter’s unlawful, extortionate and opportunistic threats against him.’

Music executive Scooter Braun has been called a ‘sheep in wolves clothing’ by former Goldman Sachs partner Peter Comisar who is suing him for $50 million

Braun’s successes in managing Justin Bieber, pictured, were reportedly used to try to convince Comisar to leave his lucrative Guggenheim Securities job to join Scope Capital Partners

Braun, famous for his public fight with Taylor Swift over the rights to her old music, sold the highly-coveted masters for her first six albums to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million last year

Comisar claimed that those investments never came about, amounting to a lawsuit over a breach of contract, which is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages plus unspecific punitive damages, the outlet reported.

‘Braun, by all outward appearance, was the real deal,’ the lawsuit reads, according to the New York Post.

The lawsuit, filed in a state court in California, alleges Braun tried to recruit Comisar for the top job at Scope Capital Partners from 2016 to 2017, which he would launch with business manager David Bolno.

Bolno allegedly praised Braun’s success managing Justin Bieber and ‘creating the Yeezy brand for Kanye West’ to Comisar in 2016, kicking off the courtship. Braun has also managed stars including Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Carly Rae Jepsen.

In 2017, Braun ‘personally executed contractual commitments to support the new venture’ which committed him to an annual operating expense of $7 million for three years and $3 million annual salary for Comisar, court documents read.

‘Braun had to explain to Comisar, tail between his legs, how he had asked David Geffen, his supposed Godfather, to invest in Scope, only to be told by Geffen that he did not view Braun as someone with whom Geffen would invest,’ the lawsuit reads.

Iovine, Saban and the family of Reuben Soros allegedly gave Braun ‘the same brush-off’ telling Braun they ‘valued him as someone to socialize with’ but not someone whom they could ever ‘trust their millions,’ the lawsuit claimed. 

The lawsuit claims Braun allegedly worked behind the scenes to secure an investment from Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, into his business Ithaca Holdings that would let him make the same investments into entertainment and consumer products as Scope Capital Partners.

Comisar claims Braun stopped paying his salary and funding Scope Capital Partners by April 2018 because the company was in ‘direct conflict’ with the deal with the Carlyle Group.

‘People in the entertainment industry do not honor their contractual obligations,’ Bolno allegedly told Comisar. 

Boldno also allegedly threatened to trash Comisar’s ‘pristine reputation’ and ‘ruin him financially,’ according to the New York Post.

The lawsuit also claimed that Braun and Bolno also separately had conversations with Comisar and would assert Comisar had been fired from Goldman Sachs, which Comisar claimed in the lawsuit is not true.

After Comisar formally notified them his contract had been breached, Bolno and Braun ‘falsely accused’ him of racism though details of those claims were not included in the lawsuit, according to the New York Post.

The Carlyle Group, which helped Ithaca Holdings buy the rights to Swift’s old music, closed its deal to acquire part of the company just months after Scope Capital Partners was founded, according to the lawsuit.  

Last year, Braun sold Swift’s highly-coveted masters for her first six albums to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million, Variety reported. 

Ithaca Holdings was sold to Hybe Corporation, the South Korean entertainment company behind the popular boy band BTS, for $1 billion in April.

Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande each made ‘roughly $10million’ from the sale and $50million taken from the purchase price has been split among some of Braun’s longtime employees and clients, according to Variety.