With only two calendar days left on the 2024 dockets in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, a war of words has exploded in a pair of lawsuits between high-profile social media celebrity couples being represented by two very different yet equally famous Miami law firms.
One lawsuit involves a multimillion-dollar defamation claim and the other is a breach of contract pertaining to an employment dismissal.
Four-attorney Brito Law founder Alejandro Brito, who just successfully sued and settled President-elect Donald J. Trump’s ABC News/George Stephanopoulos multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit, is defending Elena Cardone and her husband, Grant, and their company in litigation brought by another South Florida couple whom they allegedly partnered with in a business venture.
Ninety-plus-attorney firm Berger Singerman, also based in Miami, has James D. Gassenheimer calling the shots for the plaintiffs.
Thursday in county court, Gary Brecka and Cicely Sage Workinger filed a defamation suit seeking $100 million in damages from Elena Cardone, whose husband is a purported billionaire author, private equity fund manager and real estate investor who owns Cardone Ventures LLC with his wife.
“Over time, they just developed significant differences on what the business plan should be and how the business should be run and [were] not happy with the fact that Gary and Sage wouldn’t just go along with what they wanted,” Gassenheimer said. “They basically entered into a campaign to squeeze out my clients, and then on Nov. 5, terminated them from the company they founded.”
Brito also represents Grant Cardone in his ongoing Miami defamation lawsuit against T-Mobile’s former CEO and Naples resident John Legere, who Cardone alleges made derogatory comments, including labeling him a “con man” and a “bulls–t artist,” which court documents showed to have significantly harmed Cardone’s brand value.
“The underlying basis of this case is simply a failed relationship between the Cardone entities and Mr. Brecka,” Brito said. “The relationship between the parties has been terminated for a variety of reasons, but it seems that Mr. Brecka is intent on trying to litigate the failure of the relationship through these defamation claims, which we believe to be entirely inaccurate, frivolous and will be demonstrated as lacking any merit when we defend it in court.”
The defamation suit details the process by which Elena Cardone launched an allegedly intentional smear campaign designed to damage Brecka’s reputation, including making false incendiary social media posts and nefarious public statements, the exhibits in the complaint show, the plaintiffs’ attorney said.
In the second lawsuit filed Thursday, Brecka and Workinger and their respective entities are also suing Brandon Dawson, 10X Health Ventures and Cardone Ventures LLC for breach of contract after they were allegedly fired from the company. Dawson is the CEO of 10X Health, the attorney said.
Following their departure, Brecka posted a message on Instagram expressing gratitude and support for 10X Health’s employees and clients. In response, his attorney said Elena Cardone posted an old video of Brecka with Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was recently indicted for serious criminal offenses, with the caption “Boy bye!”
The complaint states that Cardone’s post was intended to create “the false impression that … Brecka was in some way involved with or participated in the conduct underlying Mr. Combs’ recent criminal racketeering charges.”
“Elena Cardone, the day after they squeezed Gary out, posted a very distasteful post of my client with P. Diddy a long time before any of the current news broke, when P. Diddy was a patient of 10X Health—getting treatment from Gary—in a very distasteful manner trying to suggest, improperly, that my client was somehow involved in P. Diddy’s current problems, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Gassenheimer said. “This lawsuit seeks to right the wrong and bring to light what appears to be certainly, in the case of my client, Cardone Ventures’ true approach to their business plan … rather than being a true partner to help them as they represent 10X Health, their business.”
When asked for comment, Brito said he was not aware of the lawsuit and will contact his client to confer about Thursday’s filing.
“I will be having conversations with the client to examine the nature of those allegations regarding the contract, and we will be responding in court as promptly as possible so that we can dispel any inference or insinuation that there was any wrongdoing on behalf of my client and that, ultimately, we will be seeking to have these claims dismissed,” Brito said.
About the photos of P. Diddy and those allegations?
“I don’t think that there will be much to handle with respect to the reposting of a video or photograph that Mr. Brecka himself has on his own social media pages,” Brito said. “The suggestion that this photograph or video was somehow impactful or damaging or harmful upon him is belied by the fact that he himself has it posted, or did have it posted at some point on his social media pages. So we fail to see the basis of his claim that somehow the reposting of that same picture or video has any sort of adverse consequence to him.”
Also in the court records, it is alleged Elena Cardone made a defamatory comment on Brecka’s Instagram, which has more than 2.2 million followers, containing “blatant falsities” about Brecka and Workinger’s professional conduct and relationship with 10X Health. The complaint asserts that Cardone’s actions were “with express purpose of injuring Brecka’s post-10X Health career and/or to subject him to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt, or disgrace.”
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