Arbitrator orders Fox to pay $179M in “Bones” profit dispute

By ANDREW DALTON
February 27, 2019

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An arbitrator has ordered 21st Century Fox to pay $179 million in a dispute over profits with the stars of the long-running TV show “Bones,” saying Fox executives engaged in “intentional fraud and malice.”

The decision was reached earlier this month and revealed in a court petition from the plaintiffs Wednesday demanding that Fox pay, a decision Fox said it would contest.

Arbitrator Peter Licthman, a retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge, rebuked top Fox executives by name for self-dealing and deceit and his decision includes $128 million in punitive damages, calling the sum “reasonable and necessary to punish Fox for its reprehensible conduct and deter it from future wrongful conduct.”

The overall figure is among the largest ever for a dispute over a television show and comes in a case that shines a light on finances within Hollywood conglomerates.

Lichtman said that Fox executives “engaged in a pattern and practice of fraudulent self-dealing by which it enriched itself” at the expense of the “Bones” producers and stars, who were owed a cut of profits.

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