JAY-Z’s Roc Nation is at the center of another heated legal feud as Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee accuses the entertainment powerhouse of misconduct in a newly filed lawsuit in Harris County District Court.
Buzbee alleges that Roc Nation and its associates engaged in a calculated plot to target his law firm by paying his former client Jose Maldonado to file a lawsuit against him, sweetening the deal with financial perks.
In a complaint that reads like a drama-filled script, Buzbee accuses Roc Nation representatives of going as far as impersonating federal agents and mistakenly showing up at the doorstep of Maldonado’s father in an alleged bid to intimidate and manipulate Maldonado into compliance.
“This kind of behavior is illegal and unethical,” Buzbee said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. “We know investigators have gone all over the United States illegally contacting our former clients to try to entice them with money to sue our firm. According to Mr. Maldonado, we now know who is behind this effort. We won’t be intimidated nor deterred in our important work.”
Roc Nation has mounted a fierce rebuttal, dismissing the claims as baseless and accusing Buzbee of deflecting scrutiny away from his own legal troubles.
In a statement shared with media outlets, a Roc Nation spokesperson criticized Buzbee, saying, “Rather than focus on suits by former clients for allegations of misconduct, Tony Buzbee is trying to distract with nonsense lawsuits — which of course Roc Nation has nothing to do with.”
This isn’t the first time Buzbee has pointed fingers at Roc Nation.
Last month, he filed a similar suit accusing the company of funding efforts that seek to intimidate him and derail litigation he’s pursuing on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces allegations of sexual abuse.
Adding another layer to this tangled legal saga is Buzbee’s ongoing representation of a Jane Doe, whose lawsuit accuses JAY-Z and Diddy of sexual assault.
Roc Nation has rejected these allegations outright, framing them as yet another example of Buzbee leveraging celebrity cases to enhance his reputation.
JAY-Z has also categorically denied any wrongdoing. He retaliated by filing a countersuit against Buzbee, accusing the combative attorney of extortion and using high-profile cases as a personal publicity vehicle.
Just yesterday, the rap star filed a motion to have Buzbee sanctioned and the lawsuit thrown out of court.
Roc Nation’s legal team has dismissed Buzbee’s tactics as theatrical attempts to sensationalize his claims, with one representative reportedly describing the lawsuits as “a desperate ploy to distract from his own credibility issues.”
