MIAMI-DADE, FL—Former T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who faces a $100 million defamation suit for calling his former friend and current entrepreneur Grant Cardone a "bullshit artist", had his motion to dismiss the Miami-based case denied last Monday.
In January, internet celebrity and personal finance guru Cardone filed a libel and slander suit in his home county of Miami-Dade against Naples-resident Legere for the former CEO's "outrageous, false, and defamatory statements" that have "attacked, injured, and defamed" Cardone.
The lawsuit mentions a series of instances in which Legere, who stepped down from T-Mobile in 2020, allegedly "attacked" Cardone. This includes telling Cardone on a live stream, "You are the biggest bullshit artist on the planet," calling him "a con man of the highest order" and a "fucking fraud", before inquiring if he was going to "sick" Cardone's church—the Church of Scientology—on him.
These videos, the suit says, have received millions of views and are "growing every day".
On May 6th, Judge William Thomas of Miami-Dade's Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court denied Legere's motion to dismiss the case, making the possibility of a massive Cardone payout appear more and more likely.
Cardone has been featured on Discovery Channel’s “Undercover Billionaire,” working with celebrities like Tom Brady, John Travolta, Kevin Hart, and former President Donald Trump for conferences where attendees pay between $2,000 and $35,000 to learn how to dramatically scale a business, the New York Post reported.
In March, Cardone's wife Elena started a GoFundMe to help pay Trump's legal fines—which originally were $355 million plus $100 million in interest. As of May 13, they had raised just over $2 million.
Trump later won an appeal to lower his bond to $175 million.
From Friends to Insults... "Arrogant Egotist"
Cardone and Legere began a friendly relationship around 2015, and for five years, the two men worked together to raise money for various charities and special causes, hosting live debates on the social app Clubhouse. In 2020, Cardone had his 10X Health System company set up Legere with VIP status, which Legere would recommend to his audience in live chatrooms.
Both business moguls have high followings online, with Legere's combined internet following hovering around 6 million and Cardone's just under 8 million. Their lively debates and discussions garnered mass audience interaction, causing an extra shock when Legere suddenly seemed to change his tune.
According to the suit, soon after the 10X partnership Legere became "hostile" when audiences preferred Cardone over him during their regular debates and discussions, a surprising move considering they'd done many over their five-year friendship.
Cardone, a Scientologist, reached out to ask Legere to stop. He agreed, but the "attacks" continued.
In June 2023, Legere went on a live, public chat room and consistently brought up Cardone. He predicted that Cardone would be found guilty of fraud in the next year, had an alcohol problem, and was a fake billionaire.
He referenced that while Cardone's net worth is estimated at around $600 million—though his massive real estate investment firm manages around $4 billion—he has still made claims that he is a billionaire.
Legere's, meanwhile, is around $350 million.
The videos have since been reposted to platforms like YouTube and TikTok, receiving millions of views. Since then, Legere has snarkily commented under several of Cardone's posts, one of which was Cardone talking about how he saved his health at 64, to which Legere replied "Steroids?".
In a series of now-deleted X posts from February and March, Legere insinuated that Cardone was a player during the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol and called him a "Scientologist, homophobe, transphobe or is there more (besides arrogant egotist)."
Family Legal Troubles
Though the judge dismissed Legere's attempt at dismissal, Cardone is no stranger to controversy.
Cardone has faced multiple lawsuits from various investors. One such class-action suit—which was dismissed—claimed Cardone misled investors about the risks and returns of potential investments, the New York Post reported.
The Huffington Post, meanwhile, interviewed small business owners who sued Cardone after they were stuck in "lengthy, inflexible contracts" and demanded tens of thousands of dollars that they said were left in their training contracts with his business.
Those cases were settled.
Cardone's brother, Gary Cardone, had given the real estate mogul money to launch his business. However, Cardone's twin recently found himself in hot water when he paid $100,000 in a settlement over a case from the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Florida over claims that he and his wife had helped credit card scammers maneuver around fraud alerts.
Gary Cardone and his wife are now "prohibited from working with certain high-risk clients".
