Steve Shaw, the owner of Treats! magazine, who is being sued by the ‘sleazy’ Winklevoss twins claims they made ‘inappropriate requests involving models and celebrities’
The owner of a porn magazine who is being sued by the ‘sleazy’ Winklevoss twins claims they made ‘inappropriate requests involving models and celebrities’.
Twin bitcoin billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are preparing for another courtroom battle, suing Hollywood porn magazine owner, Steve Shaw.
The duo launched a lawsuit against Shaw, the owner and publisher of Treats! magazine, claiming he frittered away part of their $1.3million investment in the publication on his ‘extravagant lifestyle’.
On Wednesday, Shaw hit back at the brothers, saying he looks forward to going to court to ‘expose their fraudulent business practices’.
Shaw told PageSix that the twins ‘thought that by investing in Treats! they would be able to use me and Treats! to advance their own sleazy agenda’.
He said that once they realized he wouldn’t ‘be complicit in helping them with their inappropriate requests involving models and celebrities, they resorted to the bullying tactics that have made them infamous’.
An erotica and fine arts magazine, Treats! featured Emily Ratajkowski in her first nude pictorial, and has included raunchy photos of an array of stars including Ireland Baldwin, Dylan Penn and heiress Lydia Hearst.
Last Friday, news of the suit against Shaw made headlines.
In the suit, the twins have alleged that Shaw mismanaged the company and used it as a source of ready cash, before trying to ‘strong-arm’ them into selling him their shares in the magazine for ‘pennies on the dollar’ when they objected.
The duo (left, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss) launched a lawsuit against Shaw, the owner and publisher of Treats! magazine, claiming he frittered away part of their $1.3million investment in the publication on his ‘extravagant lifestyle’
While Treats! is supposed to be a quarterly publication, the Winklevosses say Shaw has only managed to publish a couple of editions each year as just 12 issues have been published since launching in 2011.
In their suit, the brothers explain they started investing in the magazine in 2012, but after five years, became aware that Shaw had ‘mismanaged [their] investment and squandered their funds that were entrusted to the company, under Shaw’s direction.’
Furthermore, they alleged, Shaw had made ‘frivolous’ legal threats against them and ‘falsely claimed [they had] made promises to undertake specific acts to market and promote Treats!’ But Shaw has denied misappropriating funds.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, popularly known as ‘The Winklevii,’ rose to notoriety during an epic legal battle in which they accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their social network idea.
The twins walked away from their 2004 suit against Zuckerberg with a staggering $65million settlement, and used $11million of it to purchase bitcoins.
They became the world’s first bitcoin billionaires after investing and reaping a 10,000 per cent rise in the cryptocurrency.
On Wednesday, Shaw (pictured with Tyler Winklevoss in 2012) hit back at the brothers, saying he looks forward to going to court to ‘expose their fraudulent business practices’