Ice Cube announced the launch of BIG3 professional basketball league in Jan. 2017. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Ice Cube and his BIG3 basketball league partner Jeff Kwatinetz are taking a group of Qatari investors to court over failure to invest in the retired baller’s league.
Four men, including Qatar Investment Authority CEO Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani are named as defendants in the documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, April 5 by Cube and Kwatinetz’s attornies. According to TMZ, they allege that the investors were supposed to fuel $5 million into the organization as passive investors after being brought on in summer 2017. But instead, they actively inserted themselves in dealings without fulfilling the investment obligation.
Instead, the investors spent lavishly, with Ahmed Al-Rumaihi losing $700,000 while gambling after the BIG3 finals. Excuses offered by the lenders for not paying up ranged from “sinuses” to it being a “long day bro.”
At one point, when the plaintiffs asked for money yet again Al-Rumaihi allegedly yelled, “You don’t know who I know in L.A. and what they’re capable of. You should think of your safety and the safety of you and your family.”
Plaintiffs and players are seeking a total of $1.2 billion in damages in the suit over defamation, defamation per se, trade libel and intentional interference with contractual relations.
