Crypto entrepreneur and former “Mighty Ducks” actor Brock Pierce dropped the gloves for a legal tussle with a convicted trucking tycoon over the ownership of a leveled W resort in Puerto Rico, The Post has learned.
Pierce claims the former family friend “fabricated a fictitious default” to “outright steal” the shuttered property on the island of Vieques from him, according to a civil lawsuit Pierce filed this month in Puerto Rico.
In 2021, Pierce paid $18.3 million through his holding company for a roughly 80% stake for the once-luxurious resort, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
But Joseph Lipsey III gained control of the property last month after claiming Pierce defaulted on a $10 million loan from Lipsey’s company VRRRF, according to the complaint filed Dec. 19.
Pierce, the chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, is suing to get the court to reverse the transfer, he told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“He knew the hotel was like my heart,” said Pierce, who portrayed the young Gordon Bombay in the hockey films franchise. “I feel as betrayed as one can get.”
The former child star is also seeking $80 million in damages, Bloomberg reported.
Lipsey, the CEO of VRRRF, told the publication the transfer was legal and called Pierce’s allegations “baseless.”
Lipsey and his lawyers did not return repeated calls for comment from The Post.
A Puerto Rico court is expected to hear the case in mid-January, Pierce told The Post on Friday.
Pierce, 43, moved to Puerto Rico in 2017, where he built a real estate portfolio on the Commonwealth worth about $35 million, according to Bloomberg.
The 60-year-old Lipsey, who runs a trucking and a logistics company, relocated to Puerto Rico with his wife, Shira, and son in 2021 after running into legal hot water in Colorado.
He and his wife were charged with doling out cocaine and booze to teens at their Aspen home. The pair pleaded guilty to lesser charges, the cocaine rap was dropped, and were sentenced to one-year probation and community service.
The two men forged a friendship in Puerto Rico, where Pierce’s mother also lived. He also bonded with Lipsey’s son, Joseph Lipsey IV, who is in his early 20s. They are among the executive producers of the upcoming movie, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” starring Michael Cera and Elsie Fisher to be released next year.
“His wife became friends with my mother before she passed away,” Pierce said. “Joseph came to me after she died and said I promised your mom I’d be there to help you.”
That help apparently came in the form of a $10 million line of credit Lipsey’s company extended to Pierce in October as he sought to buyout the minority partners in the resort, according to his Dec. 19 complaint.
However, Lipsey seized the property as collateral just a month later after claiming that Pierce missed a deadline to complete the transaction — a claim Pierce denies.
“He says we didn’t send him a copy of the paperwork on time,” Pierce said.
The hippie crypto king alleges the loan agreement gave Lipsey the right to manage the holding company that controls the hotel if he defaulted, but Lipsey needed to go through a legal process to transfer the hotel to himself that would take at least 30 days, which Pierce says was ignored.
Pierce is planning to open the former W under a new nationally recognized hotel banner as early as 2025 and said he has about 30 workers engaged on the renovations.
“Everyone is still working on renovating the hotel,” Pierce said. “But I don’t know for how much longer. What Lipsey did is potentially fatal.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
