*Editor's note published Nov. 26, 2013: The original judgement against Feibush was obtained by
default, and the Court of Appeals said in its opinion, “We do not
address the sufficiency of the evidence, or the burden of proof
applicable to recovery of treble damage.”
Igal Jonathan Feibush says he's an advocate of “tough love”–rehabilitation of troubled people with strict rules, but the Southern California businessman is getting a taste of his own medicine.
Feibush–who boldly sued Drew Barrymore, VH1 and MTV for allegedly stealing what he claimed was his registered trademark: “ToughLove,”–is, it turns out, a scam artist who didn't have the trademark, according to records at a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana.
Worse for investor Sharon Bell, Feibush used the trademark ownership claim to trick her out of $202,500 by promising he could convert the loan into millions of dollars in profits.
]
Feibush, a Los Angeles County resident, eventually refused to pay back the money.
An unamused Bell sued in Orange County Superior Court, and won a judgment for the original amount of the loan, interest and a whopping $607,500 in treble damages.
Feibush appealed, claiming that Judge James Di Cesare did not have the legal authority to apply treble damages.
But
this week, a three-justice panel at the state appellate court upheld the award as justified.
Upshot: Feibush is now on the hook to pay Bell more than $810,000 and the justices also ordered him to reimburse his victim for her legal costs in the appeal.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.