Zac Brown scored a major federal court victory … a judge just ordered his estranged wife to return the documents she took when the country star fired her from his company.
A Georgia federal judge ruled in Zac’s favor last week … finding Kelly Yazdi breached her employment contract by taking and retaining more than 170 confidential business emails and files possibly containing info the judge said she could use to publicly attack Zac.
According to the ruling, obtained by TMZ, the judge granted Zac Brown Collective a permanent injunction, ordering Yazdi to return all confidential materials within seven days, certify under oath that she’s done so, and permanently stop using or further disclosing any of Zac’s business information.
The court found Yazdi secretly forwarded highly sensitive company emails to herself after being fired, and later monetized social media posts aimed at Zac.
The judge also ruled Yazdi used inside knowledge about Zac’s unreleased Dolly Parton collaboration, “Butterfly,” to strategically time and theme social media posts … boosting her platforms while harming Zac’s business interests.
Zac and Yazdi were together for several years before marrying in August 2023. The marriage lasted less than four months, and during their relationship Yazdi worked for Zac Brown Collective, ultimately rising to Executive Vice President.
According to trial transcripts, Kelly also testified that she recorded a conversation with Zac in which she spoke highly of him … describing him as loving and saying she was forever grateful for him, testimony that worked against the public narrative she later portrayed.
When reached for comment, Zac’s attorney Brad Beckworth told TMZ … “We’re grateful for the Court’s careful attention to the facts and law. The evidence at trial showed that Ms. Yazdi betrayed Zac’s trust, took critical confidential information that didn’t belong to her, and used it to attack him publicly for her own gain. The permanent injunction should put an end to it.”
Zazdi’s lawyer Josh Belinfante tells TMZ … We respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision and are appealing it to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Mr. Brown’s team knows that Ms. Yazdi already destroyed the responsive emails she sent herself, which is something she offered to do after Mr. Brown lost his first motion to restrain her from speaking. We’ve asked the Court to clarify that this is what the injunction requires.
The lawyer continues … “To be clear, Ms. Yazdi signed an employment agreement that was held to be unenforceable, requiring the Court to rewrite it, and it contained a separate confidentiality agreement that the Court said was completely unenforceable. What she did not sign was a marital NDA. As her lawyers, we will continue to defend her rights before the courts, including her rights not to be subject to a contract she refused to sign.”