Lil Kim is being sued for $15 million by her former business manager, Andrew Ro.
Ro said his company, International Rock Star Corp, signed a licensing deal with Lil Kim in August 2012 and planned to launch a number of products including a perfume and clothing line, energy drinks, a Steve Madden shoe line, and a vodka drink. She was also set to release a honey maker. Perhaps because she’s the Queen Bee?
Ro said Lil Kim often refused to come to meetings unless she was being paid extra , and, when a project was finally executed, she refused to promote the product. She also stopped taking the company’s phone calls. Ro said Lil Kim issued a cease and desist order that claimed she was involved in bad deals.
Lil Kim filed a $1 million lawsuit against Ro and Sunny Barkats , who she said tricked her into giving him and R0 a 44 percent stake in a corporation formed to license her brand names. Kim said Barkats refused to rescind the deals in December and called the lawsuit a “frivolous” attempt to back out of the contracts.
Ro, however, claims that it was Kim who was to blame for the bad deals. He is suing the Brooklyn-born rapper because she reportedly cost his company $15 million in losses.
A judge has yet to make a ruling. However, Ro might have trouble getting money from Lil Kim, who owes the IRS over $1 million in taxes . She reportedly owes $86,347.85 from 2009 as well as money for every year from 2002 to 2009.
Lil Kim isn’t the only celebrity who’s in tax trouble. Lauryn Hill has not paid taxes from 2005 to 2007; during that period, she reportedly earned $1.8 million. She claimed that threats against her and her family prevented her from paying. Hill recently signed a deal with Sony and released her first new single , “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix).” She said she was “required” to release the song immediately “by virtue of the impending legal deadline.”
What do you think of the lawsuit against Lil Kim?
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