Marvel Boss Ike Perlmutter Sued for Leaking Docs to Press

It looks like there's more legal hurdles heading for the chairman of Marvel. Ike Perlmutter has been slapped with a new lawsuit accusing him of defamation.

According to a lengthy piece by The Hollywood Reporter, Perlmutter is being sued by Harold Peerenboom, a well-known Canadian businessman. The pair have been embroiled in an ugly legal battle for nearly five year, and this new lawsuit is the latest development in the case.

As the report explains, Peerenboom is suing Perlmutter and his attorney Roy Black for leaking legal documents about their on-going case to the press. The new lawsuit alleges that a set of papers Perlmutter's legal camp leaked in early 2017 were false and sent to the press to undermine Peerenboom on a global scale. You can read the details of the official complaint below:

"Defendants published these false statements in May 2017, and thereafter knowingly and intentionally both through email to third parties and by sending the false statements to THR, with the knowledge and intent that THR would republish them widely to the public throughout the United States, and by publishing the false statements with additional false comments on the Roy Black Firm's website, available nationally and internationally."

As for the statement in question, it dates back to a development from May 2017. Perlmutter's camp sent legal documents to outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter which suggested Peerenboom and his company were actually behind the original legal case. The duo began fighting in court after Peerenboom sued Perlmutter for orchestrating a strategic hate-mail campaign against him, but the legal documents leaked last year offered a different story to the press.

According to those documents, a former employee at Peerenboom's company was said to have thought up the hate-mail campaign with the businessman to frame Perlmutter. The papers, which Black prepared for Perlmutter, even suggested Peerenboom's legal team were in on the "fraudulent" scam. Now, the businessman is fighting back against Perlmutter with a defamation lawsuit. The new development hopes to address the leaked legal documents as well as alleged emails sent by Black to businesses defaming Peerenboom as a "serial" liar.

For those unaware of how this legal ordeal began, it dates back a few years. It began when Peerenboom, the founder of Mandrake Management, began feuding with Perlmutter as the two are neighbors. After a big confrontation regarding the neighborhood's tennis courts, Peerenboom's neighbors began receiving anonymous hate-mail regarding the businessman. As such, Peerenboom drew up a lawsuit against Perlmutter for defamation, and the case has been going on for five years at this point.

Have you kept up with this legal drama? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!