Global Courant
An arbitrator has ruled in favor of Vanessa Bryant and multiple companies associated with her and late husband Kobe Bryant after a former employee sued for millions, alleging that the Lakers legend had “verbally” promised her an interest in his investment in the BodyArmor sports drink company.
An attorney representing Vanessa Bryant and three companies — Kobe Inc., Kobe Investments, LLC and 17/21 Investments, LLC — filed Monday to uphold the arbitral award in Orange County Superior Court.
The documents, reviewed by The Times, show that JAMS arbitrator Shirish Gupta awarded Bryant and the other parties more than $1.5 million in attorney fees and nominal damages and that former Kobe Inc. president Molly Carter agrees that the matter has been resolved.
According to the petition, “Carter sued the Bryant family for many millions of dollars, alleging that just months before his death, Kobe Bryant ‘verbally promised’ her share of his largest investment, the sports drink company, BodyArmor.”
Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020 in Calabasas.
Carter worked at Kobe Inc from April 2015 to September 2020. In 2017, she and the company signed an agreement stating that any potential disputes between the two parties would be settled rather than litigated in court. A copy of that agreement and a copy of Gupta’s written decision were attached to documents filed with the court this week.
Bryant invested $6 million in BodyArmor in 2013 and received about 10% of the company and a seat on the board of directors, the documents say. In 2021, Coca-Cola bought BodyArmor, which was valued at $8 billion at the time.
The court documents state that Carter asked for an equity stake in Bryant’s investment in BodyArmor three times between 2017 and 2020; those requests were rejected each time by Bryant.
Carter testified that Bryant told her in July 2019 that she would receive 2% of his stake in BodyArmor from that company’s sale of more than $2 billion. She filed for arbitration on August 6, 2021, which included three causes of action regarding the verbal agreement she said she had with Bryant.
According to documents filed this week, no evidence was presented during the arbitration that anyone was advised of that agreement, and Vanessa Bryant, BodyArmor CEO Mike Repole, and BodyArmor chief marketing officer Mike Fedele testified that they were not aware of such an agreement at the time. .
In addition, the documents state that Repole “testified that Carter did no work for BodyArmor and added no value to the company” and that Fedele “noted that he was unaware of any substantive contributions Carter had made to BodyArmor’s marketing campaign.”
Gupta ruled in favor of Vanessa Bryant in all three of these claims. Carter also lost on three separate lawsuits against Kobe Inc., seeking “millions more,” the documents say, regarding a post-employment payout.
Carter also initially filed three additional lawsuits against Kobe Inc. and Vanessa Bryant for “gender discrimination” and “harassment,” the court documents said. Those three claims were later dropped and Bryant was released from the arbitration, though she remained involved as a member and manager of Kobe Investments and the sole member of 17/21 Investments.
Gupta also ruled on a counterclaim filed by Kobe Inc. that alleged that Carter had breached contracts of confidentiality obligations, non-disparagement obligations, and duty of loyalty. The arbitrator determined that Kobe Inc. “demonstrable violation but has not proven actual harm” and awarded nominal $1 damages for each of the three claims.
In his report, Gupta wrote that “During her tenure and afterwards, Carter made negative statements about Bryant, Vanessa Bryant, and the family” and “made racial statements about Bryant and black people,” as well as Asians. The report listed many examples of such language attributed to Carter.
Carter’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on these allegations.
