Oksana Baiul, the ice-skating Olympian that won the gold medal in 1994, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against her talent agency, claiming they took advantage of her from when she was 16 years old for not understanding English.
William Morris Endeavor talent agency signed Oksana Baiul, who was born and raised in Ukraine, when she was 16, but she said in her suit Tuesday that when she signed the contract she could not read or speak English.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Oksana Baiul signed agreements in May 1994 that gave her agents the exclusive right to represent her in "all fields and media, throughout the world" and engaged them as agents for TV and film work.
She also claimed that because she didn't understand the contract she signed, she didn't realize she allowed the agency to distribute a portion of her earnings to people she claimed to have no relation with.
According to the lawsuit, "Not until November 19, 2011, did Baiul discover, through investigations by her personal manager, Farina, that though Defendants undertook the duty to collect and in fact collected almost US $9.5 million on Baiul's behalf, Defendants failed to collect additional sums to which Baiul was contractually entitled, failed to remit payment of the additional sums to Baiul and/or took the payments owing to Baiul and wrongful transferred them to OCL, UFG, and their agents."
Oksana Baiul also says William Morris Endeavor has not paid her in full for projects including TV specials, greeting cards, books and the Oksana Baiul Jewelry Collection.
Baiul is demanding at least $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the talent agency. She now lives in Pennsylvania.
