Mike Lindell gives a thumbs up as he passes by a rally for supporters of former President Donald Trump, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee).
A Minnesota law firm is suing pillow magnate Mike Lindell’s company, alleging significant unpaid debts that stem from a separate lawsuit originally filed in 2020 and finally settled last spring.
In the underlying class action lawsuit, Brandon Deutsch sued MyPillow, Inc. as the lead plaintiff and representative on behalf of several call center employees.
The plaintiffs claimed violations of federal for “failure to pay overtime wages” and violations of state law for “failure to timely pay straight time wages,” according to an April 2023 federal court decision.
In March 2024, the parties moved to settle. In May 2024, the court approved the settlement agreement.Now, MyPillow is accused of being significantly in arrears.
The company agreed to pay $36,866.38 to resolve the federal and state labor law claims, according to the lawsuit filed by St. Paul-based Johnson Becker, PLLC — a copy of which was obtained by Law&Crime.
“On May 13, 2024, after conducting a settlement approval hearing, the Court approved the Deutsch settlement in its entirety, granted attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount of $75,000, and entered judgment dismissing the matter with prejudice,” the filing reads.
To date, however, MyPillow still owes $676.57 to one of the plaintiffs, the latest lawsuit alleges, After the company quickly paid out $36,189.81 in settlement funds.
That relatively small remaining amount became an issue because one member of the class who alleged a state labor law violation “requested that their checks be reissued due to an address change.”
“Plaintiff requested that Defendant reissue the checks in the amount of $676.57 and Defendant failed to do so,” the lawsuit alleges.
And, all the attorneys’ fees remain unpaid, the law firm claims.
Multiple attempts, over several months, to enforce the agreement by obtaining the outstanding balance have been unsuccessful, according to the lawsuit. But they have allegedly not gone entirely unacknowledged.
From the filing, at length:
On December 9, 2024, and after seven months of failed attempts to recover any portion of the $75,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, and the $676.57 owed to one [state labor law violation] Class member, Plaintiff emailed Defendant’s Deputy General Counsel Jeremiah Pilon correspondence indicating Plaintiff’s intent to enforce the Settlement Agreement…
On December 12, 2024, Defendant’s Deputy General Counsel … confirmed receipt of Plaintiff’s correspondence.
On December 20, 2024, Plaintiff emailed Defendant’s Deputy General Counsel … to confirm in writing when payment would be made.
“To date, Defendant has not responded,” the lawsuit continues. “Defendant is in breach of the Parties’ contract and Plaintiff may recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in enforcing the Settlement Agreement.”
The breach of contract lawsuit was filed in the Land of 10,000 Lakes state court on Jan. 29, weeks after Deutsch himself filed a writ of execution for $75,67.57 to enforce the judgment in federal court.
The plaintiffs are seeking the allegedly back-due amount — as well as a new round of attorneys fees.
The newest contract dispute is one of many economic maladies that the Chaska, Minnesota-based MyPillow and its Texas-based founder presently face.
Lindell and his company have been accused of going back on their debts — an apparent knock-on effect of Lindell personally and loudly maintaining that certain conspiracies cost Trump the 2020 election.
In a long-running lawsuit, Lindell Management LLC has been repeatedly rebuked by the courts for its refusal to pay the winner of a “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge.
In March 2024, a Minnesota county judge ruled against MyPillow in an eviction hearing — finding that the company owed over $200,000 in unpaid rent for a warehouse in Shakopee.
In January, a judge ordered MyPillow to pay $777,000 to a delivery company. Days later came a double whammy: another judge ordered Lindell to pay over $50,000 for a frivolous lawsuit against voting software company Smartmatic.
And, in the past few months, various MyPillow-related corporate entities have sued a collection of merchant cash advance companies over allegedly usurious loans.