Drew Brees recently signed a contract extension with the New Orleans Saints that includes $27 million guaranteed, but that is not stopping the star quarterback from pursuing a payout he believes he is owed from a jeweler.
According to TMZ, Brees filed a lawsuit on Monday against Vahid Moradi, the owner of the CJ Charles jewelry shop in San Diego. In the documents, Brees claims he has spent roughly $15 million at Moradi’s store over the years buying watches, earrings and rings among other items. Brees said he was assured by Moradi that the jewelry was a good investment and would increase in value, but he apparently had his collection appraised recently and it is worth $9 million less than he paid for it.
The lawsuit states that the biggest discrepancy is with a 4.09 carat blue diamond ring Brees bought in 2015 for $8.18 million in 2015. He says the item recently appraised for $3.75 million. Moradi’s attorney, Eric M. George, insists his client has done absolutely nothing wrong.
“Drew Brees aggressively purchased multi-million dollar pieces of jewelry. Years later, claiming to suffer ‘cash flow problems,’ he tried to bully my client into undoing the transactions,” George said. “Mr. Brees’s behavior and his belief that he was wronged because the jewelry did not appreciate in value as quickly as he hoped both demonstrate a lack of integrity and contradict basic principles of both economics and the law.
“He should restrict his game-playing to the football field, and refrain from bullying honest, hard-working businessmen like my client.”
Brees is suing for at least $9 million in damages. We can’t imagine his so-called “cash flow problems” have been all that debilitating, as the 39-year-old reportedly could have made significantly more money from teams other than the Saints.
