It means a HUGE MONEY Lawsuit in the $100-million dollar range. Here's R-I's Tom Taylor with his take on the story ...
Two Inner City shareholders sue for $110 million in damages.
Hugh Wyatt and Chester Redhead, original shareholders of New York-based Inner City from the early 1970s, claim the founding Sutton family and some ICBC executives have "looted the company" over the years. They allege that Inner City hasn't followed through on its 1999 settlement with the state attorney general to re-pay $2.2 million in loans the company made to the family of Percy Sutton. They also allege (says the New York Post) that there's been improper self-dealing by the Suttons and other executives at Inner City - the company which recently went to the White House to get Goldman Sachs to re-negotiate its credit facility. Goldman agreed, and the Post says that was "a final payback of sorts for Sutton, a pillar of the old guard of Harlem, who passed away last week." Percy Sutton was indeed a lion of the civil rights movement and the business and political world around New York City. But he admitted that he'd made some bad business moves outside of radio. He died December 26 at age 89 and was memorialized on Inner City's WLIB (1190) last Saturday, by city and state leaders such as his longtime friend Rep. Charles Rangel. The funeral for Sutton should be quite something. It's Wednesday, January 6 at Riverside Church at West 120th Street in Manhattan at 11am.
In the meantime -- business as usual at Inner City's stations.
