Rainn Wilson Countersues Web Startup for $400,000

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans Posted Jul 27th 2010 01:49PM

Rainn Wilson Countersues Oregon Startup for $400,000

Portland web design startup Think Brilliant sued 'The Office' star Rainn Wilson earlier this month for more than $11 million, claiming he failed to properly pay the company for its work developing his quirky, philosophical website SoulPancake, and even saying he hacked into confidential records.

Now Wilson is firing back. The 44-year-old actor is countersuing Think Brilliant for "brazen fraud and breach of trust," demanding at least $400,000 in damages.

The counterclaim by Wilson, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Portland, contends that Think Brilliant secretly used money he paid them for SoulPancake's "spirituality website" on a hush-hush social media venture called Ziphook, according to The Oregonian.

Publicist Nicole Chabot declined PopEater's request for comment, saying Wilson's counterclaim speaks for itself.

"From January 2010 through June 2010, SoulPancake funded all of Think Brilliant's monthly expenses ... in exchange for Think Brilliant's agreement to work exclusively on SoulPancake.com," Wilson's court claim alleges. "Unbeknownst to SoulPancake, however, Think Brilliant flagrantly breached its obligations and fraudulently diverted its resources to the development of a secret project, called 'Ziphook.'"

Think Brilliant lawyer Leslie Johnson says the company did nothing wrong and suggests Wilson's claim be "read with more than the usual skepticism -- as it is plainly written for a particular audience other than the court," The Oregonian writes.

Think Brilliant founder Aviv Hadar didn't immediately respond to a call from PopEater.

The actor says Think Brilliant agreed to work exclusively on SoulPancake's website, for which he'd paid $400,000 beginning in June 2008. The money was for the salaries and health benefits of the startup's five employees as well as other taxes and expenses, but Think Brilliant didn't live up to its side of the deal, according to Wilson's court filing.

"Think Brilliant intentionally deceived SoulPancake by devoting a significant amount of time and resources to the development of Ziphook and then lying about its conduct when confronted about its actions," Wilson's counterclaim reads.

The Portland company says Wilson violated their agreement to give Think Brilliant partial ownership in SoulPancake. Wilson characterizes those discussions as "preliminary."

He also denies hacking into Think Brilliant's data and files without permission, saying his business partner clicked on a link emailed to him by Hadar and found communication about Ziphook -- including a message from Hadar describing it as a "HUGELY secret project" already pitched to the mayor of Portland that would "bridge the business and social media worlds."

Just two days before Think Brilliant sued Wilson on July 9, the actor took to Twitter, lamenting, "Lawsuits are no fun. Why can't people just behave honorably? Sigh." He has yet to tweet about this latest twist in the legal battle.

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