NEW YORK ? Penthouse founder Bob Guccione settled his lawsuit this week against iBill for an undisclosed sum, XBIZ has learned.
Guccione charged in a lawsuit that iBill, as well as Penthouse Media Group and its executives, drove his empire into bankruptcy.
The case against Penthouse and CEO Marc Bell, as well as Daniel Staton, Charles Samel, Jason Galanis and Luis Enrique Molina Galeana, continues.
?We?ve settled with iBill through private discussions,? Jamie Brickell, Guccione?s attorney, told XBIZ. The settlement was certified for publication by the U.S. District Court in New York.
Brickell refused to disclose terms of the settlement with iBill, which is owned by parent company Interactive Brand Development of Deerfield Beach, Fla.
Interactive Brand Development holds a 35 percent stake in Penthouse.
In his suit filed in New York County Court, Guccione claimed that rather than reorganize his financially troubled General Media International, he allowed the Penthouse executives to acquire it and reorganize, on the promise they would let him keep his townhouse mansion, pay him $1 million a year for 25 years and pay him $15 million if they failed to perform.
The suit claimed the defendants owed him severance of $7.5 million plus legal fees after he left the company.
Guccione, who founded Penthouse nearly 40 years ago, was ousted from the publication despite an original plan for him to stay on as publisher emeritus.
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