Schadenfreude watch: Porno copyright trolls' investors sue, say the grifters they backed stole their money (the grifters say their lawyer stole the money from them first!)

Malibu Media (previously) is the nom-de-lawsuit for Colette Pelissier and Brigham Feld, notorious copyright troll pornographers who send "speculative invoices" to people whom they accuse of downloading the pornography and B-movies they claim copyright over in the hopes that the people they ding will just send them a check rather than going to court.

This racket can be lucrative, but it's got its ups and downs. That's why Joshua Hunter and Robert Cook, two of Malibu's investors, loaned and gave Malibu (lots of) money: $2.5m in loans for help "fending off an ownership dispute over a real estate property in Malibu" and a further $400k in investments, in exchange for which the investors were supposed to get 50% of Malibu's revenues.

Malibu allegedly made $2.8m from legal shakedowns in 2018, but Hunter and Cook say they never got a dime -- instead, they allege that Malibu's founders "shuttled assets" between a bunch of shell companies.

Which is why Hunter and Cook are suing Malibu and its founders. For some reason, these millionaires thought that when they gave millions of dollars to a pair of grifters to use to cover operating expenses from their grift, that the grifters would then honestly account for their gains.

For their part, Malibu's founders say they their own lawyer, Edgar Sarsyan, ripped them off for the missing millions and that's why they never paid Hunter and Cook. They're suing Sarsyan.

Meanwhile, as Mike Masnick points out, 2019 is not a good year to be in the copyright troll business, with judges wising up and handing down multi-year sentences to the grifters behind these rackets.

In 2018 alone, continues the complaint, Malibu Media's litigation stampede generated over $2.8 million.

But the plaintiffs say they haven't seen any of the money and can't get an accounting. They further allege, "On information and belief, Defendants are shuttling assets and interests out of Malibu Media and into more obscure entities, including the shell entity holding companies: Click Here, Colette Holdings, Colette Properties, Colette Production, Inc., Colette Productions LLC, and/or Zo Digital."

The lawsuit reports that there are now efforts underway to foreclose on promissory notes. This action raises breach-of-contract claims with monetary damages demanded.

Malibu Media, Litigious Porn Studio, Sued for Allegedly Cheating Financiers [Eriq Gardner/Hollywood Reporter]