A film producer and financier has tentatively settled his long-running lawsuit against a podcaster who he accused of defaming him by “repeatedly and relentlessly” attacking the plaintiff in various ways, including repeating an accusation that he was running a criminal Ponzi scheme.
An attorney for the producer, Ryan Kavanaugh, filed court papers Wednesday with Santa Monica Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford III notifying him of a “conditional” resolution in the case brought against Ethan Klein with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by May 12, 2026.
No terms were divulged.
Earlier this year, a three-justice panel of the Second District Court of Appeal upheld Ford’s denial of Klein’s motion to dismiss Kavanaugh’s case on free-speech grounds. The panel found that Kavanaugh presented sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case of actual malice.
According to Kavanaugh’s attorneys’ court papers, Klein used his YouTube podcasts and other social media platforms to circulate a “baseless, libelous claim” first made by an aggrieved former business partner that Kavanaugh once ran a Ponzi scheme.
The false and defamatory claim was published in a trade magazine article in 2019, but the story was corrected and the claim retracted by the publication within hours, according to Kavanaugh’s lawyers’ court papers.
“Despite knowing that his statements were untrue, Klein failed to correct or retract his highly damaging statements,” Kavanaugh’s attorneys further contended. “For months, defendants have repeatedly and relentlessly attacked, and continue to attack, Mr. Kavanaugh in variety of ways, but specifically by re-publishing the defamatory and highly damaging accusation, which they knew to be false.”
In their court papers, Klein’s attorneys contended that the challenged statements were not defamatory because they are true.
“Kavanaugh’s ex-business partner did accuse Kavanaugh of running a Ponzi scheme and it was reported by (a trade magazine,”) Klein’s attorneys, argued.