Shakira wants judge to throw out $250M lawsuit filed against her by ex-boyfriend
By Billy Nilles, ZAP2it
Shakira’s facing down a $250M lawsuit from an ex-boyfriend who claims he’s responsible for her success, but the international pop star is fighting back. She’s filed court papers in Manhattan, requesting the suit be thrown out, the NY Daily News reports.
Antonio de la Rua, the son of former Argentine President Fernando de la Rua, dated Shakira for over a decade before they split in 2011. De la Rua has filed suit against the singer in New York, California, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, claiming he’s owed a share of her profits for shaping the “Shakira brand.”
He maintains that he advised her throughout her relationship, offering to use his background in law, “marketing, brand-building and political campaign management” in a more active way after her successful 2004 tour wound up losing money somehow. The spurned ex claims he is to credit for convincing her to record “Hips Don’t Lie,” which she initially “hated,” and was instrumental in her $300 million deal with Live Nation in 2008.
He also claims to have “inspired” Shakira to write “Waka Waka” with a recording he’d made of African-inspired Colombian music, adding that it was he who successfully campaigned for the song to be the anthem of the 2010 World Cup.
In her affidavit, however, Shakira says that, when she first met de la Rua at a concert in Argentina in 2000, “I was already a well-known and recognized artist, and my international career was established and solid.”
As for his claims regarding his role as business partner and strategist, Shakira says de la Rua was just “one of my numerous advisers” whom she employed out of pity, not experience.
“Though he lacked experience or knowledge of the music industry,” she says,” in 2005, at his request, I decided to involve [de la Rua] in some matters relating to the business” because he “was unemployed.”
Shakira’s lawyers argue that de la Rua doesn’t have a case because there aren’t any business and partnership agreements in writing. The filing also argues that the case shouldn’t be heard in New York — it should be fought in the Bahamas, where the couple lived together, or in Colombia, where Shakira is from and where de la Rua has been living with his pregnant girlfriend, former Miss Mundo Colombia, Daniela Ramos.
This isn’t the first time the two have sparred in court. Shakira filed suit against de la Rua in the Bahamas last year, claiming that he had “misappropriated” $3 million of her money.
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