Self-Pay Machine

+44 bassist Mark Hoppus filed a lawsuit on August 11 against Missicom LLC of San Diego, alleging the firm embezzled funds “to the tune of over 1.5 million dollars.”

Hoppus’s attorney, Howard King, says, “This all goes back to blink-182 [days], when Mark met this kid Jeff Mitchell, who drove a Ferrari and talked about these self-pay machines he was going to put inside McDonald’s, eliminating the need for cashiers. Mark and Jeff become friends, their wives become friends, but all the while Jeff is pitching Mark on investing in these cash machines.

“So, Mark goes to Louis Tommasino, blink’s business manager [1999 to 2004], and says, ‘Look into this,’ and Tommasino says, ‘Yeah, it’s a great deal’.… He [allegedly] neglects to tell [Hoppus] that he’d already been working for the Mitchells since July 2003 or that’d he’d been given 3 percent of the company in return for talking the blink guys into investing their money.”

In October 2003, Hoppus and his wife Skye invested around $600,000 in Missicom, whose company principals are father and son Ed and Jeff Mitchell. The other blink members also invested, as did pro golfer Phil Mickelson.

Hoppus’s suit alleges Missicom never had a deal pending with McDonald’s. Why didn’t Hoppus sue Missicom until now?

“Mark’s wife Skye and Jeff Mitchell’s wife Suzanne were friends, and they wrote a book called Rock Star Mama…then the whole Missicom thing happened, and Skye wanted Suzanne to take her name off the book. Suzanne said, ‘I’ll take my name off the book if you agree not to sue us over Missicom.’… The lawsuit we just filed is a derivative lawsuit on behalf of the company, seeking to have the [missing] money returned to Missicom, and not against the Mitchells themselves, so it isn’t affected by the agreement Mark and Skye signed to not sue them.”

Hoppus’s lawsuit seeks $2.2 million. A trial date is set for September 22. Calls to the Mitchells’ attorney were not returned.

– Jay Allen Sanford