Now the whole Lohan family is in trouble.
Michael Lohan Jr. and Lindsay LohanRobin Marchant/Getty Images
Actress Lindsay Lohan’s younger brother, once the scandal-scarred clan’s white sheep, is facing a $60 million lawsuit by a former business partner.
In court papers filed Thursday, Manhattan resident Fima Potik claims Michael Lohan Jr. — a summa cum laude grad of Ithaca College — and his famous sister stole his trade secrets and big-name advisors like Arianna Huffington from his online shopping company Spotted Friend to start a competing business.
After meeting Potik in 2013 the Lohan siblings, along with Michael’s roommate Christopher Roth, became equity members of Spotted Friend.
The Lohans and Roth signed a confidentiality agreement with Potik and he handed over a beta version of Spotted’s mobile app, the software, potential revenue streams and a list of advisors.
The “Mean Girls” actress agreed to be Spotted’s spokeswoman, and signed a contract giving Potik access to her physical closet, according to the suit. The app allows users to view celebrities’ and friends’ virtual closets—then purchase wardrobe items.
The group met with advisors including Huffington and former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch last March.
But then Michael demanded a bigger cut of the company and the partnership collapsed this past spring, the suit says.
“Vigme’s mobile application, as displayed on Vigme’s website, Facebook page and Twitter page, is nearly identical in design and layout to Spotted Friend’s mobile application,” the suit says.
“Specifically, Vigme’s mobile application implements social community features, including what appears to be a user’s personal ‘feed’ and a ‘trending’ function, all of which originated from and are present in Spotted Friend’s mobile application,” the suit says.
Potik, a Boston University grad, says “published reports indicate” that both Huffington and Deutsch are advising Vigme.
The Murray Hill resident gripes that he devoted his entire life savings to Spotted, and is asking the court to prevent Vigme from launching next year.
“The mobile e-commerce market is highly-competitive, and a company’s success depends largely on it being first to the market,” Potik says in the suit.
His company is supposed to go live later this year.
The Lohans’ lawyer, Ravi Batra, called the allegations meritless.