Black Immigrant Daily News

The Fulton County District Attorney’s office has revealed that a witness in the Young Thug racketeering case is receiving death threats to his person and his family and children.

Earlier this week, a document has been circulating claiming that a person familiar with Young Thug has cut a deal with prosecutors to rat out the rapper in exchange for a lighter sentence from an ongoing case he is serving.

The document has been circulating on social media, not only revealing the witness’ name but also sharing a photograph of him. It’s unclear who shared the document, but the District Attorney’s office said the leak of that document placed the life of the witness at risk for harm.

On Tuesday (Aug 16), the D.A’s office said the leak resulted in the witness and their family members receiving death threats.

Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis and Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel both expressed concern about the leak as it revealed that the witness is a known “YSL affiliate.”

“YSL enthusiasts and/or actual gang members are threatening someone they believe is cooperating with the State,” Willis told WSB-TV. “And not only that person, but their very small children,” she said.

The document that has been leaked has been confirmed to be a document shared in discovery between the prosecution and the defense.

Discovery is required by law based on the principle of fairness as the prosecution is required to declare the evidence it has against a defendant, so he has a fair chance to prepare his defense. Thug’s racketeering trial is set for January of 2023, and discovery is one of the first processes to get the parties ready for trial.

In the meantime, the D.A’s office is investigating to find the source of the leak. Thug’s attorney said the leak is detrimental to the case and could result in harm to witnesses.

“This is putting people at risk and it’s poisoning the jury pool,” Steel said in an interview with WSB-TV. “Please stop immediately. Whomever is placing items of discovery online is not doing anybody a favour. It is totally inappropriate to try to try this case on social media. This will be tried fairly and justly in Fulton County Superior Court.”

The District Attorney also said steps have been taken to protect the witness.

“We are going to have to do things to make sure that the witnesses are safe,” she added. “We need people to understand that they can cooperate, they can do the right thing, and the State will be here to protect them.”

In the meantime, Young Thug and fellow rapper Gunna are remanded to jail as they were denied bail by the sitting judge, who was told by the prosecution that the men pose a danger to the witnesses if released. At the time, the prosecution said that some YSL gang members have offered to be witnesses in the trial.

The rappers are among 28 other defendants who are on trial for violating Georgia’s racketeering act. Prosecutors say that the group is a gang and Young Thug is the leader, while Gunna operates in a “commander” role.

Thug is also facing separate charges for a cache of firearms found in his house during a police raid in May.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The attorney who filed a $20 million sexual assault lawsuit against Trey Songz in February is accused of offering to bribe a witness to lie about the incident.

The witness in the case dropped a bombshell accusation against Florida attorney Ariel Mitchell. The lawyer is accused of attempting to bribe a witness with up to $200,000 to force a $1 million settlement for sexual assault accusations against Trey Songz.

Trey Songz has been the subject of several sexual assault accusations at the time when Mitchell’s lawsuit was filed, and some are still ongoing.

In a twist that could see Mitchell disbarred or even imprisoned, a woman who is a witness in the case claims that she was approached by the attorney to lie that an assault took place. In return, she would be paid up to $200,000 once a settlement is agreed.

The alleged victim, Jauhara Jeffries, sued Songz for sexually assaulting her at a 2017 New Year’s Eve party in Miami in February 2022.

On Friday, attorneys for Trey Songz filed a motion in a Miami court accusing Ariel E. Mitchell, an attorney for Jeffries, of professional impropriety in that she offered a woman money to act as a witness in the case and lie in support of the alleged victim.

“Plaintiff and Ms Mitchell have engaged in serious misconduct, and it warrants a serious sanction,” the motion filed by attorneys Jeffrey A. Neiman and Derick Vollrath representing Songz said.

The woman who was approached is Mariah Thielen, who says she met with Jeffries’ attorney, Ariel Mitchell, last year at a Miami bar. The woman said that Mitchell reeked of weed and she carried a gun.

Thielen is named in the lawsuit filed by Jeffries. The documents say that Thielen was with Jeffries on the night of the alleged assault. However, while she does not say what happened, Thielen says that Mitchell offered her money to lie about what happened and claim that she was an eyewitness to the sexual assault.

“Ms Mitchell also informed me that if I changed my testimony to corroborate [Plaintiff’s] version of events and testified on [Plaintiff’s] behalf, that she would pay me between $100,000 and $200,000, depending on the case’s ultimate settlement amount, if any,” the witness said in the filing on Tuesday.

Thielen says that Mitchell further tried to convince her to also lie that the singer had sexually assaulted her as well in a big to paint him as “the next R. Kelly.” At the time,

The women were at a Miami nightclub during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2017. Jeffries claims that while dancing on a couch wearing a “dress with a high slit up the back,” Songz inserted his fingers into her private parts.

Jeffries has, however, cracked as she says the plan was to force Trey Songz into a settlement, but she turned the offer down.

In the meantime, Mitchell has denied that she tampered with the witness as she disclosed that the allegations were also investigated by the Florida Bar Association, according to TMZ.

“We’re highly confident and certain the court will find the witness committed perjury. Parties are still awaiting the judges’ further instructions on how to proceed given the witness’s inconsistent testimony during the hearing.”

Mitchell also threatened to file a suit for defamation if the attorneys did not withdraw the claims.

In the meantime, Mitchell was the attorney who reportedly represented a client who claimed that Chris Brown sexually assaulted her earlier this year. The lawsuit was later dropped after the singer shared text messages proving that sex between the parties was consensual.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

BY NAN ET EDITOR

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Aug. 15, 2022: It’s been 40 years already since Trinidad and Tobago’s soca star, Machel Montano, has been making music. Come September 9th, the ‘King of Soca,’ a biography of Montano, will be unveiled in New York City by his mother, Elizabeth ‘Lady’ Montano.

As “the ultimate insider,” Lady Montano reveals the making of the soca icon in her debut publication as Machel Montano gears up to celebrate his 40th anniversary in the music industry.

A first-time author, businesswoman and king maker, ‘Lady’ Montano covers the evolution of Machel – the man and artist – over four decades in her very own EESM Publishers imprint. From her extraordinary vantage point, the mother of the Soca king details the characteristics and stories of the various eras of Machel’s artistry as she shares the highs and lows of her son’s journey against the back drop of the soca legend’s ever-evolving interior world shaping his outer expression.

The book is based on Lady’s 2018 MPhil dissertation titled “The making of Monk Monte: Creativity and Commodification in Trinidad and Tobago Popular Culture”. At first, Lady Montano said she was tempted to build on it for a PhD but decided against the academic route when she understood that her intention was to make it accessible to everyone.

First-time author, businesswoman and king maker, ‘Lady’ Montano covers the evolution of Machel – the man and artist – over four decades in her very own EESM Publishers imprint.

An educator by training, she views storytelling as a vital part of knowledge sharing, which she deems essential to growth and development. The King of Soca therefore embodies a comprehensive record of the 40-year history of the 47-year-old Machel which, according to his former ‘momager,’ is not well known, and much less so among T&T’s youth.

Forty years in any industry is no small feat, but it is a particularly remarkable milestone in the music business, and more so in the context of the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago, specifically. Quite apart from Lady Montano’s unquestionable attentiveness to legacy-building, there is, for her, a sense of urgency in sharing the first 40 years of Machel’s story now. She sees this 40th year marking “the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one; one that is still taking form.”

“Celebrating 40 years in music is unbelievable for me and to have a book chronicling this journey was something I didn’t imagine in my wildest dreams”, says Machel about the book’s 2022 release. In recognition of Lady’s unique place in this project he adds, “I am honored that it’s happening and truly excited for this story to be told by the one person who knows me best. My mother and I have been so closely connected on every twist and turn of this remarkable ride that I know her account will be quite vivid and be an inspiration to all. Thank you my ‘Lady,’ – the best mother, manager and friend.”

A very young Machel Montano performing at The FANN Club in Brooklyn, NY in 1987. (Hayden Roger Celestin image)

Even with the solid foundation of her 2018 thesis, it has taken Lady Montano two years to bring the work to fruition. Commenting on the process, she said: “I started writing the book itself in 2020, at the start of the pandemic when everything was shut down and I was in Toco – (a remote, sparsely populated area on Trinidad’s northeast coast.) I thought I would finish it quickly because it was all in my head and I simply had to adapt my master’s dissertation, however, once it ceased to be an academic project, the possibilities for what I could include were now suddenly endless.”

The Montano matriarch’s enduring desire to document her son’s story is manifested in her compulsive collection of Machel memorabilia, which in 2015, constituted a full exhibition at the historic Boissiere House in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago’s capital city. She admits to her relentless pursuit to preserve evidence of all aspects of his life since what she describes as “his miracle birth” in 1974, and more so from 1982 when he officially entered the entertainment arena.

Her vision for the project was clear: “I was always able to see what the book would be like. I was disappointed when I could not include all the pictures, anecdotes, imagery and other special things I wanted in my dissertation. So, seeing the book actually taking shape really created a renewed vision of what it would be like. I’m really thankful to the various teams working with me to bring my words to life.”

Lady Montano believes this biography will resonate with anyone interested in knowing more about Machel. “I am very conscious of Machel’s continuous transformation and the extent to which he has opened my mind about inclusion,” she says. “So, while it is said that you must work with a set target audience, or a specific niche or population in mind for your product, I am satisfied that this work will deliver an authentic, revelatory, impactful account of my son’s life in music to anyone open to receiving it.”

The initial launch of the King of Soca biography took place in Trinidad on July 26th, 2022 while the New York City launch will be held in Brooklyn on September 9th as part of a number of initiatives planned to commemorate Machel Montano’s 40th year in music.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Dancehall artiste Bounty Killer is suing a British publisher in the High Court of Justice in London, United Kingdom, for millions of dollars the publisher collected on behalf of the artist in the UK from 2002 to 2021.

The dancehall legend is suing Othman Mukhlis, and his company Jamdown Limited and a third company owned by Mukhlis named Abood Music Limited, which he appointed to collect royalties on behalf of the deejay. According to the artist’s lawsuit, around 2001, Mukhlis contacted Bounty Killer, whose real name is Rodney Price, to collect agreed-upon royalties on his behalf in exchange for a percentage of the royalties.

The lawsuit claims that Mukhlis falsely misrepresented Bounty Killer and convinced him that it would be better if he were to collect the artist’s publishing royalties in the UK as withholding tax would take a significant sum- 30 percent of the monies he earns.

This information is implied to have induced Bounty into signing the agreement for Mukhlis to collect public performance royalties from the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPS) and the Performing Performing Rights Society (PRS) in exchange for a 15% collection fee of the overall sums collected.

However, Bounty Killer claims that Mukhlis’ companies Jamdown and Abood, over the period, collected more than £325,000 (J$60 million) in unpaid royalties from PPS and PRS.

That sum might also be more as Mukhlis also collected the publisher’s share of royalties on behalf of the King of Kingston artist.

According to the lawsuit, Mukhlis also collected the publisher’s share of royalties in which he would retain 10% of overall sums as agreed by Bounty Killer. Mukhlis registered Abood as the publisher for Mr. Price with PRS and later outsourced the collection with Perfect Songs Limited, but there has not been any account of monies for this set of royalties.

“Pending further investigations and the provision of further information, Mr Price does not know how much Abood and/or PSL, acting on behalf of Abood, have collected from PRS in respect of the publisher’s share of works written and/or co-written by Mr Price which are registered with PRS.”

The artiste also claims that Mukhlis has fraudulently collected the label share of the royalties in respect of the masters. The masters are not owned by Bounty Killer, and the artist has not named the owner.

“Further and additionally, in or around late 2001 Mr Mukhlis also registered Abood with PPL to collect the label share in respect of the master recordings of works performed by Mr Price. Mr Price does not own those rights so could not authorise Mr Mukhlis or Abood to collect them whether on his behalf or at all. At some point thereafter, Abood also outsourced collection of the label share to PSL,” the lawsuit said.

It’s unclear who owns the masters to Bounty’s songs and whether legal action is being taken by the label against Mukhlis in respect of the label’s share of master royalties.

Bounty Killer’s lawsuit says that in 2020, Mukhlis “acknowledged that sums were due to Mr Price,” but only transferred him the sum of £8,477.

As for what Bounty Killer is seeking from the court, the artiste claims royalties owed since 2002 and interest over the last 20 years. The artist has also asked the court to declare that all sums collected by Mr. Mukhlis, Jamdown, and/or Abood belong to him and are held in trust for him by Mr. Mukhlis, Jamdown, and/or Abood.

Bounty Killer is also seeking to rescind the contract he has with Mukhlis and his companies due to the fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation made by Mukhlis pertaining to the withholding tax.

The lawsuit was filed on June 14, 2022.

The artist has not publicly spoken about the lawsuit, but it is reported that his former manager had discovered the anomalies in his royalties.

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