Kanye West Allegedly Facing A New $4.5 Million Lawsuit Filed By His Former Business Manager
American producer, rapper, and fashion designer Kanye West is facing a $4.5 million lawsuit from his former business manager.
Celebrity accountant and business manager Thomas St. John filed a lawsuit against the artist formerly known as Kanye West over an alleged breach of their agreed monthly fees. During a recent meeting between the two of them, St. John claimed that Ye got “aggressive” with him and has since stopped paying the money he agreed to pay.
Per the lawsuit, the business manager was approached by the multi-hyphenate earlier this year to provide business management, taxation services, and accounting. After they met in March to discuss doing business together, Ye started to introduce people to St. John as the “CFO of Donda,” a different company to the Yeezy brand. St. John requested a two-year guarantee to work with the Yeezy company, According to legal documents obtained by The Blast and TMZ.
“In addition to the economic costs and risks associated with committing to Defendants as clients, Plaintiff also needed assurance that Defendants would not simply walk away from the business relationship. Mr. St. John, however, proposed to compromise on an agreement with a minimum term of 18 months,” the lawsuit reads. Eventually, they agreed upon an 18-month period, but the company St. John works for was forced to two down two other potentially lucrative opportunities in order to work with Ye.
Per the agreement signed between the two parties, St. John and his company was “retained to act as Kanye’s 'most senior financial advisor'" and as Chief Financial Officer. The agreement was a monthly retainer fee of $300,000. Just weeks after they signed a contract, Ye called a meeting to drop the deal.
“At this meeting, Mr. West became heated and aggressive. He screamed at Mr. St. John and made clear he no longer wanted to work with (St. John),” reads the suit. “When confronted by the 18-month commitment that had just been made, Mr. West stated words to the effect of ‘The 18-month term was bullshit’ and ‘You’re insane for even thinking I would stick to it.’” Ye has failed to pay the remainder of the contract, which consisted of 15 months of payments.
“As a direct and proximate result of Kanye’s breach, (the company) has been damaged in the amount of the unpaid fee balance of $900,000 as of October 12, 2022,” the lawsuit continued. “It will continue to be damaged for an additional amount of $3,600,000 for fees owed from October 2022 to November 2023, through the remainder of the minimum 18-month terms of the Agreement.”
The company says it was sent a letter authorizing them to receive all of Kanye’s financial records and to begin working on a strategy for him going forward.
At the time, St. John says he was adamant to Yeezy that he wanted a two-year guarantee to start working for him. Obviously, a job like this one takes an extreme amount of time and effort, along with multiple other employees to execute. It should be noted, the company points out that it was having to turn down two other opportunities to work for Yeezy.
In the filing, St. John says he was approached by Kanye earlier this year to provide business management, accounting, and taxation services. By March 30, 2022, Thomas St. John, the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of TSJ was “already been introduced to Yeezy’s business associates as ‘Ye’s business manager,'” it reads.
Adding, “Mr. St. John had already developed a business strategy for Yeezy’s negotiations with one of (Kanye’s) key business partners. By April 12, 2022, representatives of Mr. West introduced Mr. St. John to business associates as the “CFO of Donda,” another one of Mr. West’s entities.”
The company says it was sent a letter authorizing them to receive all of Kanye’s financial records and to begin working on a strategy for him going forward.
At the time, St. John says he was adamant to Yeezy that he wanted a two-year guarantee to start working for him. Obviously, a job like this one takes an extreme amount of time and effort, along with multiple other employees to execute. It should be noted, the company points out that it was having to turn down two other opportunities to work for Yeezy.
“In addition to the economic costs and risks associated with committing to Defendants as clients, Plaintiff also needed assurance that Defendants would not simply walk away from the business relationship. Mr. St. John, however, proposed to compromise on an agreement with a minimum term of 18 months,” the lawsuit states. In the end, the company claims Kanye agreed to the 18 months.
A deal was signed and the company was “retained to act as Kanye’s “most senior financial advisor” and as the Chief Financial Officer. The contract included a “monthly retainer fee of $300,000.”
Unfortunately, similar to other recent business dealings with Kanye West, he allegedly called a meeting just weeks after striking the deal to discuss dropping the company.
Sources: The Blast, TMZ, Complex
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