French Montana settled a $1 million watch lawsuit, but despite concerns, a judge denied a request to seal the records from public view.
French Montana settled a $1 million Richard Mille watch lawsuit that had dogged him since last fall and then immediately began burying all documents related to the case.
A federal judge in Nevada put an end to that ruling, which means the terms of the settlement will now be in the public eye, whether he likes it or not.
The court denied his motion to seal the complaint, ruling that the case had been available for public inspection since it was filed on Oct. 17, 2025, and that the allegations had been reported in detail by major media outlets.
French’s legal team argued that keeping the allegations in the public record, even after a resolution, would pose a serious reputational risk, given the speed with which his profile and reports surrounding his name spread and distorted.
The judge found no compelling basis to grant this and made clear that mere embarrassment was no reason to seal court documents.
The backstory goes back to Paris Fashion Week in January 2025, when Justo Obiang and Samir Gato, who have known French for more than 15 years, agreed to lend him their Richard Mille RM-59-01, a watch they originally purchased in 2016 for about $450,000 and which, by the time the lawsuit began, was worth well over $1 million.
French handed over one of his watches as collateral and promised to return the watch within 30 days. As AllHipHop first reported, the watch he sent them as collateral turned out to be fake, and he has since stopped responding to the two.
Attorney Steve Haddad vehemently opposed the lawsuit when it first became public, calling the allegations false and insisting that French accepted the watch to pay for promotional work he was doing in Egypt at Obiang’s request, not as a loan.
The parties reached a settlement before the case went to trial, but neither side confirmed the terms. The court’s refusal to seal the records would bring these details into public view.
In his April 23 ruling rejecting the sealed ruling, the judge made that clear by citing a line directly from French’s own catalog, citing his line “No matter what you do, man, they’re still gonna hate you” from “Salam Alaykum.”
