‘Call Me By Your Name’ Producer Rodrigo Teixeira Wants Fraud Claim Dismissed – Deadline

Like any producer worthy of the name, Rodrigo Teixeira tried to reach an agreement to solve a problem. When talks on December 14 in the fraud prosecution of Sao Paulo financier Luiz Mussnich broke down, the call me by your name The producer fired back in court with an outright motion to dismiss.

“With his complaint in this action, Plaintiff Luiz Mussnich, a Brazilian citizen residing in Brazil, launches vindictive personal attacks against Defendant Rodrigo Teixeira, another Brazilian citizen residing in Brazil, claiming that Plaintiff’s association with Defendant Teixeira and RT Features ruined the plaintiff’s identity – proclaimed a ‘strong reputation’ as a ‘professional’ in the management of finances,” says the December 21 federal court filing of RT Features and its associates. lawyers Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen & Shapiro (read it here).

“The plaintiff, however, ignores his own disreputable history,” says the motion to dismiss Mussnich’s $16 million case. “The crucial fact that the plaintiff intentionally failed to disclose in his complaint – and deliberately never disclosed to Teixeira or RT Features – is that he destroyed his own reputation long ago, when he was sentenced to five years jailed by the Brazilian government for securities and tax fraud.”

Taking this bodyslam as a starting point, Teixeira’s movement becomes as relentless as 2019’s ad astrawhich he also did.

Long short trial: While acknowledging that the film industry can run hot and cold, Teixeira and his lawyers G. Jill Basinger and Steve Basileo insist that the Brazilian producer, “despite the long chances of success in the motion picture industry, particularly involving a company more than 6,000 miles from Hollywood”, makes films that are critically and commercially successful. Moreover, while not declaring himself an alter boy and admitting that not all releases are an Oscar-winning hit as directed by Luca Guadagnino name, Teixeria proclaims that it does not mess with its investors’ money. In this vein, Mussnich’s accusations to the contrary are a forgery and an “imaginary scheme”.

Mussnich, on the other hand, claims that since 2009, Teixeira has been hustling him with “a game of shells involving intellectual property rights rather than traditional stocks, bonds or debt securities” to attract investors and live the high life. . “Mussnich’s reputation was badly damaged as Teixeira exploited Mussnich’s business partners, wealthy Brazilian families and even Mussnich’s own family to obtain tens of millions of dollars in what turned out to be worthless investments. “, states the complaint of October 21 which kicked. all of this extinguished.

Undoubtedly and sadly, you’ve heard this story before about how the bright lights of the big screen blinded some of the risks they might take with their money in search of the “big win”. Citing other lawsuits in Brazil and elsewhere against Teixeria and RT (some settled, some not), Mussinch alleges that RT’s US accountant and defendant Joseph Gues told him “that Teixeira and RT would routinely settle matters with disgruntled investors taking funds from investors allocated to others”. projects to finance the colony.

Portraying Mussinch himself as a very disgruntled investor, the motion to dismiss essentially incriminates the jury asking for the original complaint and the plaintiff’s outrage.

“He also alleges that for years he somehow remained blissfully unaware that those many investments he negotiated for his closest business and personal relationships were not performing, and it was only for some time in the over the past three years that he has learned and investigated. , these issues,” the top independent producer’s filing reads of Mussinch’s contentious outrage.

Moving from the subjective to the objective, the motion to dismiss adds: the plaintiff’s complaint also fails to take into account a basic principle of the case law: a legal cause of action must be stated in order to successfully pursue the litigation . For a host of reasons, Plaintiff’s complaint falls well below the mark.

Mussinch’s U.S. attorney Arash Sadat did not respond to request for comment on his client’s motion to dismiss his case.

Lawyers for Teixeira’s Hollywood heavyweight Glaser Weil want the motion to dismiss with prejudice to be heard before Judge Marc Scarsi at DTLA on January 25 next year.

Happy new year.