Mahone, a minority member of Earnest Holdings, first filed suit against Earnest Holdings and Viera in Fulton County Superior Court on August 17, 2007, alleging in the complaint, among other things, that Viera issued himself and Bronfman $2 million dollar personal loans from Earnest Holdings at below-market interest rates. Mahone also alleged in the complaint that Viera borrowed nearly $17 million dollars either from Earnest Partners, LLC, in which Earnest Holdings, LLC is the majority equity holder, or Earnest Holdings.

Further actions detailed in the complaint include allegations that Bronfman and his companies EP Management Pool, LLC and Bronfman Associates, III improperly transferred shares among themselves and assisted Viera in freezing Mahone out by agreeing with Viera to amend the agreement to prevent Mahone from exercising its rights. Mahone contends in its filing that, as the parties engaged discovery in the lawsuit, it learned that Bronfman also had breached the parties’ Operating Agreement by engaging in a competing business. This discovery led to the filing of the Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint filed on Thursday before Judge Alice Bonner in Fulton County Superior Court Business Division.

Erika Birg, a partner in the Atlanta office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, which represents Jessee Mahone and its Managing Member Wendell M. Starke, stated, “Mahone firmly believes that this action would not have been necessary if Defendants had simply lived up to their Agreement rather than seeking to dilute Mahone’s interests in favor of their own and then to keep Mahone in the dark about the operations of the Company.”

The case is Jessee Mahone, LLC v. Paul E. Viera, Jr., et al. The case is filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County Business Division, No. 2007 CV 138625. The Motion for Leave to File and Amended Complaint was filed on Thursday, January 10, 2008.