Kit Roberts
A multi-million dollar legal battle between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie could all come down to one payment.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt back in 2016, with the pair since becoming locked in a legal struggle over a $500 million winery that they bought in France.
The pair's legal wrangling over the winery ended up being dubbed 'The Wars of the Rosés', and has become an incredibly complicated and drawn out dispute.
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Now though, it could all come down to a single payment.
When the pair first took ownership of the estate, Pitt owned a majority stake of 60 percent and Jolie owned 40 percent.
But Pitt later transferred 10 percent ownership to Jolie, just before the two stars got married in 2014.
This meant that their ownership of the winery became 50/50, so they were equal partners in it.
The transfer of ownership was done with a payment of one euro ($1.08).
Payments like these are common practice when property is being transferred over.
The payment of one euro or one dollar, or whatever currency it happens to be, is just meant to show that money has changed hands over the property when its ownership changed.
Quora says: “When a property is sold for $1, it is usually a symbolic amount that signifies a transfer of ownership, often within a family. This type of transaction is typically considered a gift, and the sale is perceived as a gift for tax purposes.”
After the pair divorced, Jolie sold her 50 percent share of the vineyard to Stoli Group, while Pitt hung on to his.
But this is where that tiny one Euro payment suddenly starts to look a whole lot more imposing.
You see, Pitt's lawyers are now claiming that when that ten percent share of the winery was transferred over, Jolie never paid up her one Euro.
Court filings for Pitt claim that the one euro payment was never made, and add that it wasn't a fair value of the holdings anyway.
Now, Pitt's lawyers are calling for the sale to Stoli to be voided, arguing that Jolie only owned 40 percent of the winery not 50, so it wasn't hers to sell.
Stoli have said that they have not had any problems, saying in a statement: “We are not aware of any issues related to our purchase of 50% of Miraval nor do we have any concerns.”
UNILAD has reached out to representatives of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for comment.