Mauricio Umansky‘s four-year legal battle over a $32 million Malibu mansion has come to an end after the man suing him for fraud, developer Sam Hakim, filed a motion to dismiss his case.
After being accused of defrauding the U.S. government by ignoring a $40 million bid on the seized home of Teodoro Nguema Mangue, which the government enlisted Mauricio to sell, before purchasing the property with partner Mauricio Oberfeld and later selling it for a $37 million profit, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member, 53, is officially off the hook.
On December 8, Radar Online confirmed Sam filed to dismiss the lawsuit on December 7 “with prejudice,” which means he can never refile his claim.
As RHOBH fans may recall, Mauricio was put in charge of the sale of Teodoro’s mansion in Malibu after it was seized in response to him being caught embezzling millions from Equatorial Guinea, where his father is president. But rather than accept Sam’s bid, he and Mauricio Oberfeld bought it themselves and sold it for nearly $70 million a year later.
The dismissal of the case comes just months after a pre-trial battle, during which Mauricio and Sam were accused of withholding or being unable to produce text messages that would have allegedly been legally detrimental to each of them.
Also during the hearing, after Mauricio made it clear he did not want the names of his investors leaked, Judge Mark H. Epstein demanded they produce the messages by the middle of this month and encouraged them to try to come to an agreement with one another privately.
“Given the fact that each party has now made representations to the court that the court has found to be misleading and potentially deliberately so, the parties might want to think a long time before bringing more discovery motions,” the judge said in October.
In response to the case’s dismissal, Mauricio Oberfeld’s attorney, Jeremiah T. Reynolds, told Radar Online his client “did not pay Sam Hakim a dime to settle his frivolous case.”
“Sam Hakim voluntarily dropped his lawsuit under threat of court ordered sanctions for his failure to turn over text messages that demonstrated his case never should have been filed,” he said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that our system can be exploited for years to tarnish the reputations of completely innocent defendants like my clients without any consequence.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.