HOUSTON, TEXAS - KEEPANIMEALIVE - Anime licensor FUNimation Entertainment has revealed details about its lawsuit against A.D. Vision, Inc., filed on November 4, 2011.
The lawsuit alleges that ADV violated U.S. law after it went into default on payments to ARM Corporation, from whom it had licensed several titles including Gurren Lagann and Welcome to the NHK. ARM Corporation, part of Sojitz, the company that ADV partnered with to increase its catalog in 2006, transferred those licenses to Funimation in 2008.
Funimation alleges it was also given the right to enforce the collection of back payments from ADV Films. The company doesn't say whether it ever collected.
In 2009, A.D. Vision sold off its assets to a group of companies, transitioning into what some called "Neo-ADV," a group of loosely-aligned companies led by distributor Section23 Films and licensor Sentai Filmworks. John Ledford II, Matt Greenfield, David Williams, and Griffin Vance IV were all involved with these companies, and had been involved previously in ADV. Williams had been the first to leave, departing for Sentai Filmworks several years prior.
According to news agency ANN, Funimation estimates the costs owed to be $8 million.
A.D. Vision made notoriously difficult to understand corporate moves in the last five years of its life. In 2008, when the Sojitz deal fell through, the company shied away from publicly discussing what happened to some thirty titles they suddenly withdrew. They then partnered with Sentai Filmworks, a new company, that turns out to be registered to John Ledford II. In this ANN article (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-10-20/adv-films-to-distribute-anime-for-sentai-filmworks), the company is discussed as being "no relation to Sentai Holdings."
However, Funimation thinks otherwise. Sentai Holdings is named in the suit filed in November, alongside Valkyrie Media Partners, Sentai Filmworks, Section23 Films, Seraphim Studios, AEsir Holdings, and Unio Mystica Holdings (which appears to be the legal name for Switchblade Pictures). With the exception of Sentai, noted above, all are companies created in 2009 when ADV Films shut down.
Funimation alleges that these companies were created to shield assets away from ADV Films, which owed money to ARM Corporation. At the time, Funimation was owned by Navarre Corporation.
While all the different companies may seem confusing, the practice of using multiple entites for legal or financial reasons isn't uncommon. Funimation is tied to several related companies including Funimation Holdings, Funimation Entertainment, Funimation LP, and Funimation Investments. But the idea that A.D. Vision may have done so to evade debt repayment is very different, and one that could concievably lead to some hard times for the struggling entities that followed it.
Section23 Films told ANN the lawsuit is "without merit or basis" and says that it and it's sister companies - minus A.D. Vision - can't be sued as they weren't legal entites at the time the alleged action was committed.
KeepAnimeAlive.com will offer insights into the case over the next week. The first hearing is scheduled for October 15, 2012, when the court will hear the merits of the case and decide whether it may proceed to trial.
