Rich Paul, the prominent agent of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, is facing a serious accusation just before the start of free agency.
Former Klutch Sports agent Mark Termini is accusing Paul of failing to pay him on fees for deals he claims he negotiated. He’s allegedly owed at least $4.9 million.
Termini reportedly agreed to serve as an independent contractor for Klutch several years ago. Under this deal, he was supposed to be paid after each client signed a contract.
It wasn’t until 2018 when Paul started shortchanging Termini. At least that’s what the latter claims.
“Termini conducted all details of the contractual monetary discussions with the NBA teams and instructed KSG and Paul in every aspect of the execution of the negotiations, including when to release information to the media, what to explain to Clients regarding negotiation strategies, and when to engage or not engage with a Team,” the complaint states, via The Hollywood Reporter.
Here are more details from The Hollywood Reporter:
The lawsuit claims Paul, who’s on UTA’s board of directors, in 2018 started shortchanging Termini once the James-confidant’s credibility and experience in the industry was established. Other violations of his contract include hiring third party agents to provide services he was exclusively supposed to render, concealing the existence of certain contracts in order to avoid payment and failing to properly calculate fees on extensions and renewals.
Paul has not yet commented on this lawsuit.
We’d have to imagine Paul’s legal team will release some sort of statement in the near future.
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