Jessica Simpson has filed a lawsuit against two “professional con men” she says tried to swindle her out of millions of dollars.
Simpson claims that the men she is suing tried to get at her fortune by befriending her father over the course of many years. Her court filings, obtained by The Blast, name the alleged con men as Jeffrey Bowler and Bret Saxon. Simpson is suing them through her company, With You, Inc.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Bowler and Saxon are reportedly claiming that Simpson owes them money for the sale of a majority stake in her brand. Simpson, in turn, believes that the two of them targeted her father for the express purpose of getting at her money. They met Joe Simpson in 2010 in Beverly Hills, and Jessica Simpson now says that the entire thing was a set up.
In 2014, Simpson began negotiations with a company called Sequential Brands Group, which wanted to purchase a stake in her Jessica Simpson brand. At that point, she says that Bowler and Saxon began trying to get in on the deal, using her father as leverage.
Bowler and Saxon obtained contact info for Simpson’s business manager, David Levin, through her father. They were able to meet with an executive at Sequential, and somehow secured a 10 percent finder’s fee for Simpson’s deal.
In 2015 the deal was set in stone. Sequential purchase a stake in Simpson’s brand for $120 million, but she said that Bowler and Saxon had no part in it. Still, they showed up at Levin’s office to demand their 10 percent. Levin said that he has no idea about their deal before that.
Later, Simpson reportedly found out that Sequential paid Saxon $250,000 just for introducing them to Levin.
The singer was forced to enter legal battle with Bowler and Saxon when Bowler sued her and her company for the $12 million finder’s fee he believed he was owed. He went after Simpson’s family as well, and they’ve all been in arduous court negotiations ever since.
Simpson’s counter-suit is the latest step in the proceedings. She is seeking unspecified damages for Bowler and Saxon’s unwanted interference in her life and her business.
In the meantime, Simpson has reinvented herself as a celebrity mom icon on Instagram. She showed off a great time with both of her kids over Memorial Day weekend, when she and her sister, Ashlee Simpson Ross, took their kids on a big group trip to Disney Land.
