Producer's Involvement with Hockey Club Gets Whistled

Posted by Eriq Gardner

We've always been surprised how popular hockey is with Hollywood types. Tom Cruise supposedly has a game. Jerry Bruckheimer hosts an annual charity match. "24" and "Captivity" star Elisha Cuthbert even blogs about it.

Now Oren Koules, a producer best known for the "Saw" horror film series, is being sued by a Florida-based coalition of venture investors, for interfering with a deal to purchase the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club. According to the complaint filed in Florida District Court by Thomas Scarritt, Jr. of the Scarritt Law Group, Koules became interested in joining the effort to purchase the Lightning and signed a Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement with VCGroup.

The agreement gave him access to supposedly confidential infromation associated with the transaction. Absolute Hockey Enterprises, a successor to VCGroup, entered into a preliminary agreement to buy the team in early August, but before the deal was fully executed, Koules allegedly contacted the sellers and urged them not to consumate the deal. In hockey, that kind of interference gets two minutes in the penalty box, but this time, the plantiffs want the Florida Court to impose damages in excess of $50 million.