A lawsuit has been filed and is seeking class action status against the movie studio for allegedly tarnishing the reputation of hundreds of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents. The lawsuit claims NBC Universal, the owner of Universal Studios, falsely claimed the movie, 'American Gangster,' was based on a true story and misrepresented events that actually occurred.
The film follows the rise and fall of former heroin drug lord Frank Lucas, and when caught, Lucas turns into an informant. New Jersey Detective Richard Roberts builds the case against Lucas and eventually arrests hundreds of DEA agents.
The lawsuit claims the movie hurt the agents' reputations by falsely claiming in text 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.
The suit was filed in a Manhattan Federal Court and 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.
