HAMMOND | As life stories go, luxury repo man Nick Popovich's James Bond-esque tale is a good one. Ask the ABC News producers who recently featured Popovich, of Valparaiso, on "Nightline," or the reality TV creators who are making a show for the Discovery Channel about Popovich and his high-end repo firm.
But now a Los Angeles magazine writer has filed papers in Hammond federal court claiming Popovich is a "con man" who took credit for another man's adventures.
The dispute dates back to June, when Salon.com published freelance writer Marc Weingarten's story about Popovich, "The Learjet repo man."
The story portrays Popovich, president of sage-popovich, as a fantastically daring semi-covert international adventurer who has faced armed white supremacists and Haitian jails in a lucrative career taking back airplanes and helicopters from delinquent owners.
In September, Popovich sued Weingarten in Hammond federal court, claiming Weingarten unfairly sold the information from the interview to Paramount Pictures. Variety magazine reported in June a writer and producer are working on "License to Steal," an action comedy "loosely based" on the Salon.com story.
Popovich also claims in his lawsuit Weingarten violated an agreement not to expose certain details about Popovich's business and family in the story.
Weingarten's attorney fired back Nov. 20. Weingarten's lawyer filed an answer to the complaint and a countersuit claiming Popovich "grossly exaggerated" his repo exploits and inserted himself into thrilling stories that, in real-life, starred one of his employees, not Popovich himself. Weingarten's countersuit confirms Paramount is making a fictional movie loosely based on his journalism, but Weingarten claims the film has nothing to do with the "life, likeness or exploits of Popovich."
The countersuit accuses Popovich of defaming Weingarten and trying to "hijack" ownership of Weingarten's work or extort Weingarten into cutting him into the movie profits. The countersuit seeks damages and asks a judge to stop Popovich from using Weingarten's work to market himself. The countersuit also asks for an injunction to stop Popovich from interfering with the Paramount film.
In his interview with Weingarten, Popovich "misled people into thinking that he is swooping in and flying aircraft in dangerous situations," Weingarten claims. But Popovich hasn't had a commercial pilot's license for decades, according to Weingarten's court filings. Weingarten claims one of Popovich's employees actually "does the jobs Popovich falsely claimed to be doing himself."
Weingarten claims Popovich's allegations about the violation of a pre-interview agreement on nondisclosure are false.
Reached in his Valparaiso office Wednesday, Popovich declined to comment. Popovich's lawyer, R. Lawrence Steele, also declined to comment. Weingarten's Los Angeles-based lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Court battles aside, Popovich's notoriety has jumped in recent months. Popovich and his company were the focus of a segment on ABC's "Nightline" Oct. 12. The Hollywood Reporter reported Oct. 29 that the Discovery Channel plans to start running "Airplane Repo," a reality series following Popovich and his crew, at the start of 2010. The show is reportedly produced by Craig Piligian, the man behind Discovery's reality hit "Dirty Jobs."
Weingarten's response to Popovich's suit suggests proceedings should be moved to Los Angeles federal court.
Weingarten wrote that Popovich, a Hammond native, got into the business in 1979, and he now uses a crew of 65 repossession experts at sage-popovich, which is headquartered on a "120-acre ranch-style compound in rural Valparaiso." Weingarten wrote that Popovich showed him a warehouse in Gary filled with airplane parts, like "a Costco run by the Pentagon."
