Ice Cube may not be working as heavily on the music front as much but he's still putting in work. The rapper launched his BIG3 basketball league last year alongside Jeff Kwatinetz and that seems to be the main part of his focus this days. However, a recent report claims that the company was being targeted by a major Qatari investor in order to get access to Steve Bannon shortly after he left the Trump administration.
Ice Cube and Kwatinetz have reportedly filed a lawsuit that claims the Qatari government tried to use the two as a means to gain access to Steve Bannon, The Daily Mail reports. The suit says that their investor for BIG3 league was actually a front for the Qatari government. The government allegedly tried to use them as a means to gain access to Steve Bannon.
Kwatinetz said in legal papers that he and Bannon worked together in the past and remain "friends." He says that after Bannon left Breitbart and got fired from his White House position, the Qatari investor was pressing him to set up a meeting with Bannon in order to "underwrite all of his political efforts in return for his support."
The documents say that Ahmed Al Rumahi, the Qatari investor, bragged about bribing other "Washington politicians" including Michael Flynn. Kwatinetz also says that Al Rumahi wanted a meeting with Bannon so that the Quatari could "convey a message from the Qatari Government to Steve Bannon." Kwatinetz says he declined in court docs and said, "convey a message from the Qatari Government to Steve Bannon."
The BIG3 owners are suing as part of $1.2B lawsuit against Qatari investors, Al Rumahi and Ayman Sabi. They say they didn't fall through with their promises on investing. They reportedly signed on to invest $20.5M but only forked over $7.5M and continued to dodged the owners when they attempted to get the rest of their money.
The lawsuit was filed last month and the Qatari investors are counter-suing for libel and they want the case to be sent to a federal court.
