Al Gore has filed a lawsuit against Al Jazeera, accusing it of fraud and breach of contract in its $500 million purchase of Gore’s Current TV cable channel.
The dispute centers on Al refusal to turn over “tens of millions of dollars” remaining in an escrow account and still owed to the selling shareholders of Current TV. David Boies, Gore’s attorney, said in a statement that Al Jazeera America “wants to give itself a discount on the purchase price that was agreed to nearly two years ago. We are asking the Court to order Al Jazeera America to stop wrongfully withholding the escrow funds that belong to Current’s former shareholders.”
The lawsuit was filed Friday morning by Boies in the Delaware Court of Chancery. According to a case summary of the suit, Gore claims that Al Jazeera has withheld about $65 million in payments due him and his partners.
Al Jazeera acquired Current TV in January 2013 in order to create Al Jazeera America. The channel was launched in August 2013. The network has steadily gained carriage across cable, IPTV and DTH companies and now is available in 60 million households, but its ratings remain low in comparison with rivals CNN, Fox News and CNBC.
