A man who claims he is entitled to 5 per cent of a Conor McGregor-founded whiskey brand is to provide a sworn statement on why information found on an old phone was not revealed earlier and delayed the hearing of the case, the High Court heard.
Artem Lobov, former MMA sparring partner of Mr McGregor, claims he was involved in the creation of and worked on the initial setting up of the Proper Number Twelve Irish whiskey brand which was reported to be sold for $600 million (€513 million) to Proximo Spirits in 2021. Mr McGregor was reported to have received $130 million from the sale.
Proximo cut ties with Mr McGregor and the brand following last year’s separate High Court action in which a civil jury found he should pay almost €250,000 for raping a woman, Nikita Hand, in a Dublin hotel in December 2018. Mr McGregor appealed and a decision on the appeal is awaited.
Mr Lobov originally claimed he made an oral agreement about the whiskey brand in a gym in September 2017. Mr McGregor said he was in Ibiza that September and could not have been present on that date.
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However, as Mr Lobov was preparing for the hearing of his case, he found an old mobile phone last March which clarified the meeting at which the agreement was made was October 9th, 2017, not in September.
As a result, a hearing date for the case had to be vacated after Mr McGregor’s side said it had completely changed the claim they had to meet and they needed time to deal with it. A formal application was made to allow Mr Lobov amend his pleadings, was opposed by the McGregor side, but granted by the court and a new date for hearing proposed for next October.
On Thursday, the case was mentioned by Andrew Walker SC, for Mr Lobov, before Ms Justice Nessa Cahill who said his side was making further discovery in preparation for the hearing. It will come in the form of an affidavit from Mr Lobov which will provide an explanation as to why the phone was not revealed sooner.
Catriona Cannon BL, for Mr McGregor, consented to this but said she would like the case mentioned next week in case her side needed to respond to the additional discovery.
Ms Justice Cahill put the case into a list to fix dates for hearing later this month. This will provide the parties with an opportunity to say the case is ready for hearing in October.
