Madonna record label 'lost $66m'

NEW YORK (People Website) - People.com reported Tuesday Warner is accusing the star of losing $66 million for the company over the past five years and failing to pay back a $20-million loan from Warner.

The finger-pointing began last month in Los Angeles Superior Court, where Madonna's Maverick Records label sued Warner Music and its former parent, Time Warner Inc., for breach of contract and improper accounting.

In the suit, Maverick -- which was founded by Madonna in 1992 -- accuses Warner Music (now owned by Seagram's liquor heir Edgar Bronfman Jr.) of "engaging in acts of self-dealing and profit-taking, falsely accounting for receipts and expenses of the partnership . . . and secretly attempting to seize partnership opportunities for their own benefit."

In Warner's reply to the suit, as reported in Tuesday's New York Post, the company argues, "Maverick has invented and asserted trumped-up and baseless claims of fiduciary breach and breach of contract against its long-term partner." Warner also suggests that Madonna launched her attack just as the contractual time arrives for Warner to begin the process of buying out Madonna's label. The suit asks the court to allow Madonna to do business with other companies.