Fox has been ordered to pay $179m to profit participants on the
longrunning TV show Bones; the judgment includes $128m in punitive
damages because the aribitrator that heard the case found that Fox had
concealed the show’s true earnings and its execs had lied under oath to
keep the profit participants from getting their share of the take.
The arbitrator singled out Fox execs Dana Walden, Gary Newman and Peter Rice for “giving false testimony to conceal their wrongful acts.”
The suit turned on Fox’s “self-dealing,” whereby one division would make
a program and sell it to another division at well below market rates,
then claim that the show hadn’t earned very much money, thus denying
payouts to those with a share of the profits: the show’s stars, the
author of the novels the show was adapted from, and the show’s exec
producer.
Fox has vowed to appeal.
Two of the Fox execs singled out by the arbitrator are set to move into
executive roles at Disney after the Disney acquisition of Fox is
complete. Disney CEO Bob Iger gave a statement in their defense.
