FIRST IN PI — COURTOVICH BACK TO FIGHTING SAUDI INVESTORS: Lobbyist Jim Courtovich has breached a settlement agreement he made to pay back an investment vehicle backed by Saudi investors, who had sued him over allegations of breach of contract and fraud, Daniel reports. — Courtovich in early June signed a settlement with the LLC, called Woodland Drive and funded by the Al Gosaibi family, who had sued him over the fact that Courtovich hadn’t paid back $4 million that the LLC had given to him to purchase a Capitol Hill townhouse and invest in his firm SGR LLC Government Relations and Lobbying. (The Saudi-backed company has alleged that Courtovich instead used some of their money for personal expenses, including paying back taxes.) — The settlement said that Courtovich would pay Woodland Drive $1.25 million by July 26 and sign a “deed of trust” which would give the company a registered stake in the townhouse that he’s now trying to sell. In a new court filing, the LLC said that it hadn’t received any of the money nor the deed. — As part of the settlement, Courtovich admitted liability for the $4 million in a document that he signed authorizing Woodland Drive to use it as evidence against him for the money if he failed to live up to the settlement agreement. Woodland Drive, managed by Simon Charlton and Brett Walter, last week asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to enforce a judgment that Courtovich now be forced to pay the entity $4 million plus interest and attorney fees. — “Woodland Drive LLC in good faith entered into an agreement to settle this long-standing dispute with Jim Courtovich,” the company said in a statement to PI. “But within two months of signing the agreement, Courtovich breached it. He again failed to do what he promised. Therefore, Woodland had no option but to seek relief from the court based on the confession of judgment he signed admitting liability to the company for $4 million. Woodland will continue to pursue the full recovery of all amounts due from him.” — In his own statement, Courtovich said: “We’re settling this in an appropriate way. Everyone’s getting paid. Everyone calm down. In one month, this will all be wrapped up. Simon needs to relax, and I’m so sorry he’s no longer welcome on Woodland Drive with his former fiancée,” referring to the street Courtovich lives on. — Since Courtovich signed the settlement, his lawyer in the case, Russell Duncan of Clark Hill, has also requested to be taken off as counsel. “In recent months, it became increasingly difficult for counsel to be able to contact and to speak with Mr. Courtovich,” Duncan told the court in a motion last month. “Mr. Courtovich has failed to respond to numerous emails, text messages, and telephone messages. Mr. Courtovich has not responded to multiple attempts to contact him to discuss this motion.” Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Don’t let anyone tell you bipartisanship is dead, folks. Hitting up any good fundraisers soon? Switching jobs? Let me know: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. KKR BUYS OUT WPP FOR FGS: Private equity giant KKR is doubling down on its investments in the public affairs space, buying out communications conglomerate WPP to become the majority shareholder in strategic comms consultancy FGS Global. — Last year, KKR became the latest Wall Street investor rushing to scoop up some of D.C.’s booming public affairs shops for their portfolio with its purchase of a minority stake in FGS. (KKR holds a significant stake in Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company.) — Today, the companies announced that WPP will sell its 50 percent stake in FGS Global in a deal that estimates the value of FGS at $1.7 billion — up from $1.4 billion last July. FGS partners will continue to hold a 26 percent stake in the firm, which has more than 1,400 employees and more than 1,600 clients, according to WPP. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. — The acquisition is the latest signal that investors remain interested in the communications space, which continues to cash in on the effects of political and social controversies infiltrating corporate boardrooms and increasingly driving policy concerns. — “In today's increasingly complex stakeholder ecosystems, the value of FGS’s insight, advice and execution is increasingly essential for organizations to navigate uncertainty and achieve their goals,” Philipp Freise, the co-head of KKR’s European private equity business, said in a statement. MEANWHILE, IN TINSELTOWN: The Academy of Television Art & Sciences has tapped its first lobbyists to work on artificial intelligence issues in D.C. Venable’s Tim Ursprung began lobbying for the Academy earlier this month, according to a disclosure filing. — The organization, which puts on the Emmy Awards, joins a raft of other major players in the entertainment industry monitoring Washington’s plans to regulate AI — with a particular focus on AI’s use of copyrighted materials and the unauthorized use of AI-generated images, voices and likenesses. — One such bill to address the latter issue, the No AI FRAUD Act, was listed on second-quarter lobbying disclosures by groups such as the Motion Picture Association, the Recording Industry Association of America, SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Academy, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and the Directors Guild of America. SPEAKING OF: The Directors Guild has lured Mike Stoever away from the Hill to be a director of a different kind in the union’s government affairs shop. Stoever spent the past seven years on the Hill, most recently serving as a legislative assistant for Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), one of the chamber’s leaders on AI issues. WHEN WALZ FACED OFF WITH MAYO: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday as her vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, has cast himself as a progressive with a reputation for advancing policies like paid family and medical leave, free meals for children in school, and legalizing recreational marijuana,” STAT News’ Rachel Cohrs Zhang, Tara Bannow and Bob Herman write. — “He’s been willing to take on some corporate interests in health care as well, provoking a lawsuit over a law that limited UnitedHealth Group’s role in the state’s Medicaid program and creating a prescription drug affordability board that can set limits on what medicines cost.” — “But in a high-profile showdown with the Mayo Clinic last year over two bills to rein in health care costs and regulate hospital staffing, he backed down after the behemoth threatened to send billions in planned investments in the state elsewhere. The state nurse’s union called Walz' concessions ‘abdication of good government and acquiescence to anti-democratic and anti-labor corporate bullies.’” — “That a governor like Walz with sterling progressive credentials would capitulate to Mayo’s demands is a sign of the hospital industry’s influence. Mayo is a powerhouse in Minnesota. It registered $18 billion in revenue last year, more than companies like Kohl’s and AutoZone, and generated a $1 billion profit. It’s also the state’s largest employer — bigger even than huge corporations headquartered in the state like Target, UnitedHealth, and 3M.” ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: “Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said Tuesday that the FBI confiscated his cellphone in an investigation into issues with his campaign finance reporting,” per the Associated Press’ Jonathan Mattise and Kimberlee Kruesi. — “The first-term member of the conservative Freedom Caucus said on the social platform X that the FBI took his phone last Friday and he promised to fully cooperate with the agency, saying he already has done so with the Federal Election Commission. Ogles had just defeated an opponent in a Republican primary election the day before, bolstered by an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.” — “Ogles said his understanding is that the FBI is investigating ‘mistakes in our initial financial filings’ that have been ‘widely reported for months.’ Among the discrepancies: Ogles had reported that he loaned his 2022 campaign $320,000, but in recent months adjusted the report to remove the loan. ‘I am confident all involved will conclude that the reporting discrepancies were based on honest mistakes, and nothing more,’ Ogles said in the post.”
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