Calvin Harris wins first phase of legal battle against ex-manager, gets $13.5 million

Calvin Harris has been in a legal feud with his ex-business manager Thomas St John for sometime now. And in the turn of events, the judgement was passed for the first phase in favour of the EDM star where he has reportedly won  $13.5 Million.

Inside Calvin Harris’ legal war with former manager regarding a real estate feud

Back in 2023, Calvin accused Thomas of defrauding him of $22 million. The whole fiasco started because Thomas had misused their friendship to fund a real estate boondoggle, an American term used for an unnecessary, wasteful or fraudulent project.

Calvin was persuaded to help Thomas finance a Hollywood recording studio and office space development called CMNTY Culture Campus, a project that never broke ground and has since gone into foreclosure. 

Getting onto a series of history, the CMNTY Culture project was started after songwriter Philip Lawrence sold his share of Bruno Mars’ hit songs in 2020. Philip had invested in a real estate project that was proposed by Thomas. But as financial struggle came their way, Philip decided to leave and that made Thomas the sole owner of the project. Faced with the financial calamity, he asked Harris for funding while also bringing in other investors and securing a $35 million loan from real estate lender Parkview Financial.

But after all of these, the project was never built upon because they failed to get office space in Los Angeles. Soon, the decision was made to shift the project to a residential area. However, the company failed to repay its loan to Parkview, which was backed by the Hollywood land, putting the property at risk.

Thomas has appealed in defence that whatever happened the two came into business willingly. Harris financed CMNTY Culture in two tranches: a $10 million loan and a $12 million equity investment. In December, the judge who is overseeing the dispute through confidential arbitration, ruled that Thomas had undisputedly failed to repay the loan by its due date.

So, amidst all of these now, finally Calvin has won the first stage of the legal battle which requires Thomas to pay him $13.5 Million. The next stage of the remaining amount is still in question with the two parties fighting hard for themselves.

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