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DEATH ROW TAKEOVER

E

edthedeal

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Billboard report.



Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight skipped a court-ordered appearance at a hearing about his assets Saturday, setting the stage for courts to take control of his Death Row Records label.

Knight has missed several hearings in a legal battle since he lost a $107 million judgment last year to Lydia Harris, a former associate who claimed she helped start the rap record empire with her former husband, Michael Harris.

Michael Harris, an imprisoned drug dealer, says he put up $1.5 million to help start the record label -- an assertion Knight has repeatedly denied. A judge last month ordered the record company into receivership, which hinged on Knight's appearance at Saturday's hearing.

A court-appointed "receiver" would take control of all assets of Death Row Records, including a music library containing the records of such artists as Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre, said Steve Goldberg, attorney for Michael Harris.

Lawyers for the Harris' said they would ask that Knight be held in contempt and jailed until he participates in the hearing to disclose his assets. "He's had his last chance as far as we're concerned," Goldberg said.


A hearing was set for tomorrow to finalize the receivership and address the contempt request. "We are going to ask the receiver to take ownership of the music library and auction it off," Goldberg said. He predicted this could be "a death sentence for Death Row Records."

Knight's attorney, Dermot Givens, would say only, "We try our cases in the court and not in the press." Givens also did not appear at the hearing. Givens had said Friday that he told opposing lawyers Knight would not appear at the hearing. He gave no reason.

Last December, a judge froze Knight's assets, saying he and his lawyers had failed to answer questions and provide information in the case.


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Billboard report.


Marion "Suge" Knight Jr. and Death Row Records filed petitions for bankruptcy today (April 4) avoiding more than $120 million in debts and the threat of a California judge ordering a court officer to take control over the label.

The move comes three days after Knight failed to appear – for the fourth time – in a California state court to identify all of his assets in a receivership proceeding, says attorney Steve Goldberg. He represents Michael Harris who, with ex-wife Lydia Harris, is trying to collect on a $107 million judgment awarded last year after Knight failed to defend Lydia Harris' claim for profits after helping to start Death Row.

The petitions list debts, which are not secured by any assets, totaling more than $120 million. They include the $107 million Harris judgment plus $11.7 million in back taxes, $10,000 under cell phone contracts and $900,000 in past legal fees -- about $350,000 to Christensen Fink Miller and $74,000 to Harold Becks in Los Angeles, and $483,000 to Amanda Metcalf in San Rafael, Calif.

Knight and Death Row also list as a potential debt the claim by Bridgeport Music, the music publisher that filed nearly 500 lawsuits in Nashville in 2001 against various parties for unlicensed samples. Bridgeport won a $4.3 million judgment against Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy LLC and Universal Records in March.

The petitions automatically halt all other court actions. A bankruptcy trustee will be appointed to handle liquidation of assets and possible payment to some creditors.

Knight, who listed in the court documents his California street address in Compton and his mailing address in Beverly Hills, is asking the bankruptcy court to relieve him from paying all of his personal debts under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy law. Death Row filed under Chapter 11, which will likely require the label to repay some debts.

Greenberg tells Billboard.biz that he believes the shift to federal court is an attempt to avoid the California court's taking over the label. "We'll follow Suge Knight into whatever court he wants to go into," says Greenberg. "State courts, federal courts, bankruptcy courts or the courts of hell."

Suge Publishing Group, which was listed in the court documents as the company that advanced attorney's fees of $50,000 to Knight's bankruptcy attorney Daniel McCarthy, did not appear to file a bankruptcy petition.

Robert Altagen, who represents Death Row in the bankruptcy, and McCarthy could not be immediately reached for comment.


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