The $100 million lawsuit against billionaire Miami businessman Jeff Soffer is back on after the family of his friend Lance Valdez, who died in a 2012 Bahamas helicopter crash, filed a second lawsuit over Soffer’s alleged role in the tragedy.
Soffer, husband of supermodel Elle Macpherson, first faced the allegations in a federal suit that was filed Dec. 9 but were withdrawn weeks later. In the first suit, Lance’s wife, Daria Gogoleva, accused Soffer of illegally taking the controls of the chopper before it crashed, killing wealthy tax lawyer Lance.
An amended suit that was filed Friday in Miami Dade Circuit Court reiterates the claim that even though there was a pilot on board and Soffer did not have a helicopter pilot license, “Soffer was flying the helicopter at the time of the . . . crash, and he was responsible for the crash that killed Lance Valdez.”
The new suit claims that immediately following Lance’s death, grieving Daria was pressured to sign a release exonerating Soffer from any blame or liability so Soffer and other crash survivors could collect a $2 million insurance payout that would be funneled to the Valdez family.
The papers read, “Despite being responsible for the death of his friend, Soffer repeatedly lied to and intentionally deceived Daria about his involvement in the crash in an effort to persuade her to pursue an insurance recovery rather than a claim against him.” Daria is suing for wrongful death, fraudulent inducement and conspiracy, and wants a jury trial.
While her lawyers insist the first suit was withdrawn over jurisdiction issues, Bob Martinez, a lawyer for Soffer, said, “A bad lawsuit doesn’t get any better just by refiling it in another court. Twenty-two days after filing a lawsuit in a federal court against my client, the lawyer for the other side withdrew it without any explanation on New Year’s Eve, the day before my client was about to move to dismiss the case. That lawyer now says that he made a mistake and has filed the same complaint in another court. The complaint rehashes the same mistakes and false accusations.”