Kit Roberts
David Beckham is suing Mark Wahlberg over a fitness deal that Beckham claims cost him a million dollars in profit.
The former England footballer had reportedly been signed on to act as a global ambassador for Wahlberg's fitness brand, F45.
But now Beckham's company, DB Ventures Ltd, has claimed that it was misled into working with F45.
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Wahlberg and Beckham reportedly became friends after Beckham's 2007 move from Real Madrid to LA Galaxy, which meant they were living in the same neighbourhood.
In 2019, Wahlberg became a minority shareholder in F45, and Beckham agreed to work with them the year after.
His role as an ambassador saw him featured in a number of social media posts promoting the brand, which have since been deleted.
But the central question in the case that has been brought lies in a different aspect of the arrangement.
So what is it?
Beckham's representatives have claimed that he was promised shares in the company as part of the deal.
They allege that when it came time for the shares to be handed over in 2022, there was a delay of several months before this was carried out.
As can happen in the stock market, in the intervening period those shares lost a lot of value, meaning that had they been handed over and sold earlier, Beckham would have made more money than when they were handed over.
In this case, at the start of 2022 shares in F45 were valued at around $11. In February they climbed to $15 a share, but then dropped sharply by the middle of the year to just $4 a share.
Beckham's representatives have claimed that the delay in transferring the shares may have cost him as much as $10.5 million in profits thanks to the stock's drop in the middle of 2022.
F45 founders Adam Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch are being sued, as is Wahlberg's business, the Mark Wahlberg Investment Group.
The defendants have submitted a request that the case be dismissed.
They have claimed that the allegations of 'fraudulent conduct' are baseless, and that the case 'tries to make up with length what it lacks in merit'.
Previously, Beckham had filed a case with golfer Greg Norman, but a judge told the pair they would have to file separately.
Shares in F45 have continued to decline, sitting at just 15 cents a share at the time of writing.
LADBible Group has reached out to representatives of Mark Wahlberg and David Beckham for comment.