NEW YORK — A group of retired Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents filed a $62 million lawsuit against NBC Universal on Wednesday, claiming the movie "American Gangster" falsely portrayed them as villains.
"American Gangster" follows the rise and fall of former Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, portrayed in the film by Oscar-winner Denzel Washington. Lucas' empire undercut the price and quality of heroin sold by the Mafia and upon being caught, he turned informant.
Former DEA agents Louis Diaz, Gregory Korniloff and Jack Toal say NBC Universal, the owner of Universal Studios, falsely claimed the movie was based on a true story and misrepresented the events surrounding Lucas and New Jersey Detective Richard Roberts, portrayed in the film by Russell Crowe.
The suit claims that the movie hurt the agents' reputations by falsely claiming in text at the end that a collaboration between Lucas and Roberts "led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency" agents between 1973 and 1985.
"With this utterly false and defamatory statement, the defendant has ruined and impugned the reputations of these honest and courageous public servants in the eyes of millions of people," the suit said.
NBC Universal quickly denied the allegations, saying: "American Gangster does not defame these, or any, federal agents."
"The end legend specifically refers to members of 'New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency' — not the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, where the plaintiffs formerly worked. We believe the lawsuit is entirely without merit," said NBC Universal.
The suit says the public believed the film's text referred to federal DEA agents, not police officers, and regardless, no New York police officers were convicted as a result of Lucas' cooperation.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a Manhattan federal court, seeks to stop the film's distribution or change the text at the end of the film and turn over all of its profits to a fund for federal DEA agents.
To date, the critically-acclaimed Ridley Scott film has grossed more than $212 million worldwide.
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