Funk pioneer George Clinton has sued his former business partner Armen Boladian to reclaim ownership of his music catalog for alleged fraud and copyright infringement.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Florida federal court, Clinton claims Boladian and several of his companies engaged in a “decades long scheme” that involved forging his signature on deals that surrendered his rights to his music. As part of the fraud, which includes withholding tens of millions of dollars in royalties, Boladian has accrued ownership of roughly 90 percent of Clinton’s catalog, according to the complaint.
Clinton seeks an immediate court order to block Boladian from soliciting bids for the rights to Clinton’s music, which he’s allegedly been shopping, as well as unspecified damages. He takes advantage of a provision in copyright law that allows creators to claw back the rights to their works after a period of time.
In a statement, Richard Busch, a lawyer for Boladian, said he’ll move to dismiss the complaint and seek sanctions. He added, “This is just the latest in a series of lawsuits that Mr. Clinton has filed against Bridgeport and Armen Boladian over the last 30 years raising the same exact issues. He has lost each and every time.”
Clinton — the frontman for Funkadelic, Parliament and the P-Funk All-stars whose music has been sampled across several genres — has maintained through multiple legal actions that paperwork transferring ownership of his works was forged. In 2001, a Florida federal judge ruled in favor of Bridgeport over the rights to several of his songs. Baladian has said that he doesn’t owe Clinton money because he hasn’t recouped expenses and advances paid to the musician over the years.
The lawsuit details numerous ways through which Boladian, who was Clinton’s business partner and agent from 1968 to 1975 and 1981 to 1990, engaged in fraud. This includes Boladian misleading Clinton into “signing blank and boiler plate agreements” that granted him the rights to his client’s catalog.
For a four year period starting in 1982, Boladian forged multiple deals assigning his companies additional rights and shares to Clinton’s music, the lawsuit says. These agreements, Clinton alleges, increased Boladian’s shares in royalties.
The lawsuit also claims that Boladian inserted fake songwriters, like “L. Crane” and “B. Blaine,” in copyright registrations for Clinton’s songs to dilute royalties.
“In addition, Boladian would also pay third parties to claim ownership of Plaintiff’s work to defraud Plaintiff of royalties derived from such works,” the complaint states. “For example, Boladian paid Mark Bass to have him falsely claim “Anybody Get Funked Up” as his own to Defraud Plaintiff of royalty shares in this song.”
Boladian’s companies named in the lawsuit — Bridgeport Music, Westbound Records, Nine Records, Southfield Music and Eastbound Records — are holding companies with no assets other than copyrights to songs owned by various artists. They frequently file lawsuits against artists who sample Clinton’s songs without licenses. Clinton says he’s never received payments from the litigation.
In his lawsuit, Clinton advances claims for copyright infringement, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, among several others.
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