Music Executives Akon of Konvict Entertainment, LLC, and his business- partner-brother, Abou ‘Bu’ Thiam, of Bu Vision, LLC, are both being sued by Atlanta producer Leland Clopton.
Clopton is claiming Akon and Bu Thiam are hiding financial statements from him to avoid paying possibly millions in royalties, according to a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County in Atlanta in December 2016.
EURweb was able to obtain court documents and catch up with Clopton’s attorney, James L. Walker, Jr.
Walker says Akon’s record label, Konvict Entertainment, LLC, and his brother’s company have both avoided paying what they owed his client in royalties since 2008.
In addition, the lawsuit asserts a long list of charges to include racketeering, breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, and assuming publishing and administration rights over hundreds of compositions created by Clopton that were not part of the contract. The suit also asserts that they collected money and royalties from third parties on behalf of the plaintiff, which they were not authorized to collect and keep.
According to Walker, Clopton produced a number of hit songs for Akon, but only saw income statements for a few songs, and the income statements that Clopton received were not accurate accounting of royalty statements.
“We are just trying to get our client paid. We filed a complaint and our next step is discovery and subpoenaing his financial records,” says Walker. “My client has a number of hit records but hasn’t been paid. He owed for hit records since 2008. We have been trying to get fully paid for the hits.”
Walker adds:
“I contacted him so many times and they just ignored the complaints. I contacted him, his lawyer and his brother. I reached out about ten times, with no response. It’s a serious thing and I just hope we can resolve this. I hope they come to the table and do the right thing,” says Walker. “I think it’s great he is helping other countries, but he needs to take care of this.”
Last summer, Akon was in the news for providing electricity to 16 million people in impoverished African countries and obtaining a $1 billion dollar line of credit to provide electricity for additional countries.
Clopton is seeking a minimum of $1 million dollars in damages and his contract terminated with Konvict Entertainment. Clopton also asserts in the complaint that because of working with them, he has suffered tremendous damage to his career as a songwriter and producer.
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