Ice Cube is looking to score big against people he says stiffed him on investments in his BIG3 basketball league, then spread lies when they were cut off from the league.
The rapper and his BIG3 partner Jeff Kwatinetz have filed suit against Qatar Investment Authority CEO Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bun Saud Al Thani and others, seeking $1.2 billion in damages, alleging defamation, trade libel and other counts.
The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, says the league ?was to take the most popular played sport in the world, 3 on 3 basketball, from the playground to the professional setting of NBA-style arenas and broadcast games.?
However, the suit says, things took a bad bounce when they agreed to take on the defendants as investors.
?Touting their love of basketball and familial connections and relationships with the royal Al Thani Family in the State of Qatar, and thus access to vast resources and capital, Defendants were brought to the Big3 as passive investors,? the suit reads.
However, the suit says, instead of being passive investors, the defendants ?quickly started to insinuate themselves into the affairs of BIG3 despite failing to live up to even their most basic obligation to fully fund their investment.?
The complaint adds, ?These members and associates of the royal family made excuse after excuse for not paying, all of which is documented in text messages and emails, where the blame for their failure to fund the millions they owed the BIG3 ran the gamut from their ?sinuses,? ?hiking,? it being a ?long day bro,? and to bad press regarding Qatar associations with alleged funding of terrorism ? Also, like a simple debtor in hiding from a collection agency, these Defendants with their purported links to the Qatar royal family would go into hiding and refused to return phone calls and ignore Plaintiffs.?
Cube and Kwatinetz say that an investigation found that the defendants ?were falsely bragging about ?operating the league,? and how they were friends with BIG3 celebrity investors as well as BIG3 and NBA basketball stars and legends.? According to the suit, the defendants had a ?history of scandal surrounding its basketball programs? and believed their relationship with the BIG3 and the celebrities and athletes associated with the league ?would improve the public perception of Qatar in the United States as well as its standing in the arena of sports on a global level.?
