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Vacation, mistaken filing led to order to show cause, lawyers for MyPillow CEO say

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 23:50:23 +0000

Trials & Litigation

Vacation, mistaken filing led to order to show cause, lawyers for MyPillow CEO say

April 29, 2025, 2:29 pm CDT

MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell on April 4, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Wilfredo Lee/The Associated Press)

Human error led lawyers representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to file a draft document with incorrect case citations instead of the final version, according to a response to a federal judge’s order to show cause.

The lawyers didn’t realize that they had filed the wrong document, an early draft without corrections, until questioning 55 days later by the judge, according to their April 25 response.

Law360 has the story.

U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang of the District of Colorado had ordered the lawyers on April 23 to show cause why they shouldn’t be referred for discipline. Wang said she identified “nearly 30 defective citations” of cases, including citations to cases that don’t exist, in the lawyers’ Feb. 10 brief.

Lawyer Christopher I. Kachouroff said in a declaration his co-counsel filed the draft document instead of the final version that they “had carefully cite-checked and edited.” At the time, Kachouroff was on a one-week vacation to Mexico, where there were “limitations on internet service.”

But what happened wasn’t clear, Kachouroff said, when he was questioned in court by Wang. Kachouroff was “taken by complete surprise” because he was unaware of the mistake, he said in the declaration.

“In the face of the court’s detailed questioning, I was utterly flustered and embarrassed, and due to my ignorance of what was going on, found myself at a loss for words,” Kachouroff said.

Kachouroff said he routinely uses artificial intelligence to analyze the structure and the logic of legal arguments. He does not, however, rely on AI to do legal research or find cases.

“Regardless of whether I use AI in a particular pleading,” he wrote, “I always conduct verification of citations before filing.”

Kachouroff and his co-counsel, Jennifer T. DeMaster, are seeking leave to replace the draft document with the correct one.

Lindell is being sued for defamation by Eric Coomer, a former executive with Dominion Voting Systems. He alleges that Lindell and his related companies are “among the most prolific vectors of baseless conspiracy theories claiming election fraud in the 2020 election.”

Lindell allegedly amplified false allegations that Coomer may have been involved in a rigged election and a criminal conspiracy, leading to “credible death threats” against him and banishment from the elections industry, Coomer’s second amended complaint alleges.

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Smartmatic wants Mike Lindell held in contempt over debt

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 17:53:50 +0000

Mike Lindell listens during an interview from the podium in the press briefing room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is refusing to pay a court-ordered debt, according to a Wednesday filing in Washington, D.C., federal court.

Now, voting software company Smartmatic wants the bedding magnate held in civil contempt “for violating the clear and unambiguous terms” of a January court order that put Lindell on the hook for $56,369 over frivolous claims he made in a failed lawsuit.

In the case, the underlying lawsuit was filed by Dominion Voting Systems, accusing Lindell and MyPillow of slander over false claims about the 2020 election. Lindell later sued both voting companies for myriad claims and lost. Smartmatic, in turn, moved for sanctions.

While the court sided with Smartmatic on that question in 2022, it was not until the company prodded late last year for their award that the dollar amount was finally decided upon. On Jan. 13, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, substantially pared down Lindell’s liability and ordered him to pay.

Roughly two months passed. Still, Smartmatic says Lindell is continuing to evade his responsibilities in the dispute he started.

“Smartmatic was improperly made a party to this Action by Mr. Lindell in December 2021,” the motion for civil contempt reads. “Shortly thereafter, Smartmatic was dismissed and the Court found that sanctions were appropriate for at least some of the claims Lindell had asserted. Now, nearly three full years after that ruling, Smartmatic continues to wait to be made whole. Despite the Court’s clear and unambiguous ruling earlier this year that Lindell compensate Smartmatic for the fees it spent litigating Lindell’s frivolous claims, Lindell still has not paid, nor has he meaningfully engaged in any discussions or negotiations regarding the terms of payment.”

Despite the court’s order directing Lindell to pay Smartmatic, the stalwart Trump ally only once made a suggestion on how to resolve the lingering payment issue on Feb. 5, according to the fling.

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Despite multiple promises to pay’: MyPillow sued for nearly $9 million by FedEx who claims Mike Lindell personally reached out about unpaid debts and ‘delinquencies’

“Lindell requested through counsel that the proposed agreement be modified to require payments of $5,000 per month as opposed to a lump sum payment of the entire sanctions award,” the motion goes on. “Lindell did not provide any rationale, documentation or supporting evidence to Smartmatic evidencing a present inability to pay the ordered sum at one time. Lindell did not otherwise have any edits to the proposed agreement.”

Under the terms of the order, Smartmatic is not allowed to take full custody of the sanctions award. Rather, the company must keep the funds in escrow “[p]ending final judgment and a potential appeal as to Lindell’s counterclaims.”

On Feb. 21, Smartmatic rejected the installment offer.

Instead, the company responded with a finalized escrow agreement.

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Defendant has not responded’: Law firm sues Mike Lindell’s MyPillow for over $75K to enforce settlement agreement in labor law violations class action lawsuit

“Smartmatic conveyed its understanding that Lindell did not dispute the actual terms of the Escrow Agreement, but was otherwise refusing to execute the Agreement and pay the sanctions award,” the contempt motion continues. “On February 26, 2025, Smartmatic requested that Lindell inform it by February 28, 2025 whether he would execute the Agreement and pay the sanctions award.”

Since that late February request, however, the company has allegedly not heard from Lindell at all, the filing claims.

“As of March 12, 2025, Mr. Lindell has neither executed the Escrow Agreement, offered suggested revisions to the Escrow Agreement, nor paid the sanctions ordered by this Court,” the motion reads.

In pushing for civil contempt, Smartmatic cites federal precedent that provides a three-pronged rule for such a finding.

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In order to prove contempt in the federal district, a moving party must show there was a clear and unambiguous court order, that the order required a party to do something, and that the party in question did not do what was ordered.

Smartmatic says this case is an easy call — and that Lindell has not even tried to offer any kind of mitigating information.

From the motion, at length:

Here, each of the three elements for a finding of civil contempt indisputably exist …

Moreover, there is no dispute that Lindell has failed to comply with the Court’s Order. Despite several months of attempts, Lindell has not engaged with the exercise of negotiating the Escrow Agreement beyond his initial refusal to pay the full amount owed. What’s more, once Smartmatic finalized the Agreement, Lindell neither responded nor paid any amounts into escrow.

To the extent Lindell is claiming an “inability to pay,” he has not demonstrated any such inability beyond statements or conclusions offered to the media. Indeed, even if it were obligated to do so (it is not), Smartmatic is currently unable to assess any such ability or inability as Lindell has refused to produce his personal financial information in a separate case between Lindell and Smartmatic pending before the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, which refusal itself led to the Minnesota District Court holding Lindell in contempt.

Earlier this month, a federal court in Minnesota found Lindell in contempt in an altogether different lawsuit between the voting software company and the once-lucrative pillow manufacturer.

Law&Crime reached out to Lindell for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell files RICO lawsuit against lenders

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:02:04 +0000

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).

The high-dollar economic woes of Mike Lindell and his small-town Minnesota-based company MyPillow continue apace.

So does the litigation.

Last week, the pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theorist and his once-lucrative business sued several lending companies over the eye-popping repayment terms of a $600,000 merchant cash advance.

Under the terms of the agreement signed in September, Lindell and his company must pay back $16,800 each day.

In the 34-page lawsuit filed on Oct. 25 in Carver County District Court and obtained by Law&Crime, the plaintiffs claim the agreement was “usurious, unconscionable and thus unenforceable.”

Stylized as a racketeering (RICO) complaint, the lawsuit accuses various lenders of issuing a loan under the guise of a contract in which the lenders agreed to “purchase My Pillow’s future receivables at a discount” and in which “My Pillow agreed to repay the face value of its receipts through daily payments.”

The agreement was executed in this fashion, the lawsuit alleges, in order to skirt New York State’s statutory maximum interest rate.

The plaintiffs say the effective interest rate on the “loan” equates to 368% — or 441% if origination fees of $36,000 are considered.

Lindell says he and his companies “bore the risk of non-payment of any receivables and remained on the hook for the entire amount at issue,” which left the lenders with “no risk in the transaction.”

On top of that, the lawsuit alleges, Lindell and his companies “always remained liable for the debt” that was taken out.

“As a result, the [defendants] never made a bona fide purchase of My Pillow’s receivables under the [Merchant Cash Advance] Agreement and the transaction is, in reality, a usurious loan,” the lawsuit reads.

But what looks like an alleged double whammy for the beleaguered bedding vendor — once on the verge of becoming a household name until its founder repeatedly dabbled in electoral systems expertise — is, in fact, something not entirely unlike a triple whammy

Lindell also says he was snookered into making the fraught financial contract with promises of a secondary loan that never materialized.

“Plaintiffs also entered into the transaction as the result of a classic bait and switch,” the lawsuit reads.

To hear Lindell tell it, one of the named defendants, a broker, “represented that to get the other loan on the real estate,” the plaintiffs had to agree to the merchant advance loan with a lender who would then “also make a real estate loan on two properties in Minnesota.”

But, the lawsuit alleges, once the $563,000 — the amount inclusive of the aforementioned fees — was lent out, the primary lender “refused to make the real estate loan that was Plaintiffs’ reason and consideration for entering into” the merchant advance transaction.

The lawsuit also launches a shot across the bow at the entire industry, and business model, of merchant cash advance companies.

From the filing, at length:

The MCA industry specializes in providing struggling businesses with highrisk loans at exorbitant interest rates, disguising those loans as the alleged purchase of future receivables. The MCA industry typically seeks to hide within the gray areas of the law, attempting to take advantage of procedural remedies and loopholes in distant state courts to disguise its predatory lending practices.

…

This is what the MCA companies do. Among other things, they generally require unaffordable daily payments that they know the debtor is unlikely to be able to repay given the extraordinary interests rates and fees the MCA companies demand. They further leverage various legal and contractual processes to guarantee full repayment, thus assuming virtually no risk in the transaction.

With the lawsuit, Lindell aims to obtain a court order declaring his agreement with the lenders “unconscionable and unlawful,” usurious under New York law, “and therefore void and unenforceable.” The filing also seeks various damages — compensatory, direct, and consequential — as well as interest and attorney’s fees.

Law&Crime reached out to the primary lender named in the lawsuit as well as the company that allegedly “induced” the transaction, according to the filing, but no responses were immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.

The interest rates at issue is, of course, one of many economic maladies Chaska, Minnesota-based MyPillow and its founder face.

Lindell and his company have been accused of welching 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 that disastrous contest, engineer Robert Zeidman — himself a supporter of Trump — picked up the poly-foam gauntlet thrown down by the one-time QVC star. Despite severe doubts about his own abilities, Zeidman bested Lindell over false claims about election data.

In March, 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 October 2023, Lindell confirmed that MyPillow had been “decimated” by defamation lawsuits Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic filed against several pro-Trump figures who insisted the voting machine companies orchestrated a plot to hand the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. As a result of being one such voice, Lindell said, his company had “lost hundreds of millions of dollars.”

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