EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Benski and Marisa Clifford, founders of Gangs of London producer Pulse Films, are suing Vice Media, claiming they are owed more than $20 million.
Vice took a majority stake in Pulse Films in 2016 before acquiring Benski and Clifford’s remaining 22% shareholding in December 2021 for $10M in cash and $43.24M in loan notes. Soon after, Vice ran into serious financial difficulty, with Benski and Clifford alleging that the company failed to pay loan notes totalling $20.4M, breaking the terms of their sale agreement.
The producers — who exited Pulse in 2022 — claimed that they were persuaded not to exercise their contractual rights by former Vice executives, who they accuse of making fraudulent misrepresentations about the company’s financial health and failed sale to Antenna Group.
Vice Group entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2023. Three months later, a consortium of former lenders — led by Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital — acquired the company after a bankruptcy auction.
Vice Media’s position is that Benski and Clifford’s allegations are baseless and lacking in evidence. The company intends to vigorously defend its position.
Details of the dispute emerged for the first time in a UK High Court ruling earlier this month, during which Benski and Clifford failed in their efforts to get Vice to disclose thousands of documents relating to their grievance.
Judge Peter MacDonald Eggers dismissed Benski and Clifford’s pre-action disclosure application, but did not reach any conclusions on the merits of their case. Deadline understands that the producers will continue to pursue action against Vice and are currently assessing their legal options. The duo, who now run Magna Studios, declined to comment.
A Vice Media spokesperson said: “Vice Media is pleased to note that the London High Court has dismissed an application for pre-action disclosure by Thomas Benski and Marissa Clifford in relation to allegations concerning events prior to Vice Media’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.
“Those allegations are groundless. In dismissing the application, the court relied on the vague, inconsistent and unsatisfactory way in which the allegations have been advanced. We will continue robustly to defend any claim, to the extent it is pursued.”
Benski and Clifford’s pre-action disclosure application named four defendants, including Pulse Films and Nancy Dubuc, the former CEO of Vice Media. Pulse Films’ intellectual property, including Sky series Gangs of London, now sits under Vice Studios.
Summarizing Benski and Clifford’s claims, Judge Peter MacDonald Eggers wrote that they have “advanced serious allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation and unlawful means conspiracy against the respondents [at Vice]. In particular, the applicants’ case is that they were induced not to exercise valuable contractual enforcement rights by alleged repeated and false assurances by the respondents as to the valuation, solvency and an imminent sale of the Vice Group.”
He continued: “Whether the allegations of fraud and conspiracy can be established will be an issue in any substantive proceedings which may be issued by the applicants in respect of their claim and will turn on the respondents’ knowledge about the Vice Group’s financial position and the failure of the sale process at the time they were allegedly giving assurances to the applicants.”
The judgment added: “The respondents deny the allegations of fraud and conspiracy, which they state are couched in ‘unacceptably nebulous terms, based on unwarranted inferences, and without any sufficient evidential foundation.'”
Vice’s position is that its executives were not obliged to keep Benski and Clifford abreast of the company’s financial position and that they dealt with duo with “honesty and integrity” at “all times.”
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