The abrupt end of a beautiful friendship—nearly two decades of mutual admiration between struggling media entrepreneur Glenn Beck and his fired top executive, Christopher Balfe—has become a legal battle of ugly accusations that only promise to get uglier, according to The Daily Beast.
“Beck has driven [Mercury Radio Arts, Beck’s wholly owned private umbrella company] into the ground due to his own erratic behavior, excessive spending, and mismanagement,” Balfe alleges in a countersuit filed Monday afternoon in Dallas County, Texas, District Court—a response to Beck’s July 29 lawsuit accusing his former protégé of fraud, breach of contract, dereliction of duty and various other misdeeds.
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| Chris Balfe |
Beck’s lawsuit—in which the official plaintiff is Mercury, parent company of Beck’s The Blaze—demands that Balfe, who was Mercury’s chief operating officer and The Blaze’s chief executive, return a portion of the $13 million he was paid from 2009 until his forced departure.
Balfe is pursuing a separate legal action claiming that Mercury and Beck are liable for his lawyer’s fees and must indemnify him from any monetary damages because of the laws of Delaware, where The Blaze is incorporated, and because The Blaze’s corporate bylaws protect officers of the company from lawsuits.
“Balfe propelled Beck and Mercury on a meteoric rise to national prominence and delivered millions of dollars in profits to Beck and Mercury,” claims the complaint filed by the 38-year-old Balfe against his 52-year-old erstwhile mentor, for whom he started working as a 19-year-old computer geek in 1997, when Beck was a relatively unknown local radio host in Hamden, Connecticut.
Mercury Radio Arts responded to Balfe’s lawsuit in a statement: “So now the world is to believe that Glenn Beck would not be Glenn Beck without Mr. Balfe? Well, that’s not only comical but we look forward to presenting actual evidence that proves our position and makes a mockery of his.”
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