50 Cent, Jim Beam Head to Mediation Amid Embezzlement Claims

Rapper 50 Cent’s alcohol brand, Sire Spirits LLC, and the parent company of Jim Beam are headed to mediation to settle claims that representatives of Beam Suntory Inc. committed fraud and embezzled money from Sire.

A Manhattan judge sustained Sire’s claims of fraud and conspiracy against Michael Caruso and Julious Grant, both of whom allegedly acted on Beam Suntory’s behalf to help Sire expand and make connections in the alcohol industry. However, the two are accused of orchestrating an embezzlement scheme that included millions in false invoices.

Attorneys for Sire, Caruso, and Grant agreed to mediation during Friday’s oral arguments. Attorneys for Caruso and Grant said they’d prefer to try to work things out in mediation before going through the costly process of drafting and submitting briefs in response to Sire’s claims.

“It seems to me this is the sort of case that should be worked out from the get-go,” New York Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane said.

Caruso and Grant worked with 50 Cent, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson III, to help him launch Sire’s Le Chemin du Roi champagne and Branson cognac brands between 2015 and 2020.

Caruso and Grant brought on a consultant at Sire who, unbeknownst to the company, helped carry out a false invoicing scheme spanning multiple years and continents that resulted in millions of dollars in damages, the lawsuit alleges.

The consultant, named Mitchell Green, specifically would negotiate secret agency fees that he built into the price of the champagne and cognac liquid purchased from the brand’s suppliers. Once Sire paid the supplier the artificially-inflated amount for the product, Green would invoice the supplier for the overpayment. The additional money was funneled back to Green, who then would dole out shares of the money to Caruso and Grant.

"[The consultant] abused the position of trust which Beam had secured for him with Plaintiffs,” Sire says.

The American Arbitration Association has already found Green liable for fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of his employment agreements with Sire Spirits, and ordered him to pay Sire more than $6 million.

Sire Spirits argues that Grant, Caruso, and Beam Suntory are also liable, as Caruso and Grant “eagerly” participated in and profited from the scheme and Beam Suntory enabled them to conspire to perpetrate a fraud, the suit says.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP represent Caruso. Tein Malone PLLC represents Grant. MoloLamken LLP represents Beam Suntory.

The case is Sire Spirits v. Beam Suntory, N.Y. Sup. Ct., No. 650799/2023, oral arguments 8/25/23.