CHICAGO, IL. (Top40 Charts/ R.
Kelly PR Team) - Representatives of R&B superstar R.
Kelly announced today that yet another lawsuit has been filed against promoter Leonard Rowe, charging him with bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling them non-existent shares in R. Kelly's recently completed "
Double Up" Tour.
Filed in Atlanta on April 11 by Milton Kenneth Peacock of Bowie, Maryland, the suit describes a scheme in which unwary investors were promised half the profits from three Kelly concerts in late December and early January in return for a cash investment of $440,000. After the concerts, the investors were allegedly presented with what was described as a false accounting showing that the concerts had lost money, as a result of which there were no profits to be paid out.
At least two other lawsuits have been filed against Rowe in the last three months, alleging similar scams involving other Kelly concerts.
Along with Rowe, whose Atlanta-based company Rowe Entertainment promoted the "Double Up" tour, this latest suit also named Kelly as a defendant, even though as the complaint makes clear, he was not a party to the fraudulent contracts - and indeed knew nothing about them until the victims of Rowe's scam began coming forward.
In fact, Kelly himself has been victimized by Rowe. In February, Kelly initiated legal action against the promoter for failing to pay Kelly several million dollars in tour proceeds he was owed. Rowe thereupon dropped out of sight, leaving Kelly with a choice of canceling the last ten days of the tour or playing the dates with no prospect of being paid. Not wanting to disappoint his fans, Kelly decided to complete the tour-in effect, performing for free.
"I agreed to let Leonard Rowe promote my tour because he convinced me he was an underdog who deserved a chance to prove himself," Kelly said this week. "Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. I have complete sympathy for all of the good people who were swindled by Rowe and I will do everything I can to help them get their money back from him."
Kelly's contract with Rowe expressly barred the promoter from selling off shares in Kelly's shows. The victims of his scam never saw the real contract, apparently accepting Rowe's assurances that he had the right to sell them a percentage of the proceeds. In fact, he did not.
