The New York Times reports that Tax Prof Richard A. Westin (Kentucky) has been sued by singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen:
Betrayal and bitterness have been running themes in Leonard Cohen’s work ever since "Songs of Leonard Cohen," the Canadian singer-songwriter’s debut album, appeared in 1968. Now they figure prominently in a sordid legal melodrama engulfing his life.
In August, Mr. Cohen, 71, filed suit against his longtime personal manager, Kelley Lynch, accusing her of stealing more than $5 million over the past dozen years, including five years he spent at a Zen Buddhist retreat. Mr. Cohen is also suing his former tax lawyer, Richard A. Westin, accusing him of mismanaging money Mr. Cohen had set aside as a retirement fund. Mr. Cohen is also seeking damages from Neal Greenberg, his investment adviser from 1997 to 2004, who the singer said allowed Ms. Lynch to steal millions by not telling him what was going on.
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, describes a classic case of a creative artist turning over his business affairs to venal backstabbers, who exploit his trust, as the complaint puts it, "through greed, self-dealing, concealment, knowing misrepresentation and reckless disregard for professional fiduciary duties."
Ms. Lynch declined to comment on the charges, saying by e-mail message that Mr. Cohen and his lawyer, Robert Kory, have used aggressive tactics and that they tried to freeze her bank accounts. Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Westin denied wrongdoing.
The money at issue in the lawsuit came from two transactions orchestrated by Ms. Lynch. The first was the 1997 sale of Mr. Cohen’s publishing company, Stranger Music, to Sony; the other deal, also with Sony, involved the 2001 sale of Mr. Cohen’s future royalties from Mr. Cohen’s 127-song catalog, which includes often-covered classics like "Bird on a Wire" and "Suzanne."…
The $8 million windfall from the second Sony deal was also looted, Mr. Cohen says, from a company set up to minimize taxes on the transaction. Mr. Greenberg said Mr. Cohen signed off on giving Ms. Lynch 99 percent of the company and Mr. Cohen 1 percent. Mr. Greenberg says that Ms. Lynch, in addition to taking a $1.1 million commission on the deal, used the company to withdraw huge amounts, often tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Mr. Cohen said he had not suspected that his money was depleted until October 2004, when an informant tipped off his daughter, Lorca Cohen. "Every month my investment manager, an old friend of Ms. Lynch’s, and a successful trader, sent me a report that my savings were safe, intact, even flourishing," Mr. Cohen said, referring to Mr. Greenberg. He says that Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Westin, whom Mr. Lynch had hired to help minimize taxes on the two Sony deals, charged Mr. Cohen $4 million in unnecessary transaction costs.
Mr. Greenberg denies that he overcharged Mr. Cohen for his services. "Those were fees paid to lawyers for the sale of the rights associated with the songs," Mr. Greenberg said. Mr. Westin declined to be interviewed at length for this story, saying, "None of Leonard Cohen’s problems have their genesis with me."
