Rihanna Sues Her Accountants For ‘Gross Mismanagement’
Rihanna was all business this week when she filed a lawsuit at a Manhattan court, under her real name, Robyn Fenty. The Barbadian singer claimed "gross mismanagement," alleging her former accounting firm, Berdon LLP, caused her to lose millions of dollars over a five year period. The amount of damages the singer is expecting from the lawsuit has yet to be confirmed. She began working with the firm in 2005, when she was just 16 years old.
Ri Ri reportedly suffered "significant net losses," walking away with a mere 6 percent of total revenues, while paying out 22 percent to Berdon LLP.
The complaint recites, "astonishingly, however, due to its improper financial arrangement with Fenty, Berdon paid itself millions of dollars in commissions for the Last Girl on Earth tour based on Fenty's gross receipts from the tour."
According to the lawsuit, Berdon LLP, "...failed to follow applicable industry standard accounting and business management practices, as alleged herein. In particular, plaintiffs are informed and believe, and on that basis allege, that, among other omissions and failures, defendants' recordkeeping and accounting methods failed to provide sufficient information and/or detail regarding, and/or failed entirely to account for, Plaintiffs' revenue and expenses and failed to ensure maximization of Plaintiffs' revenue and Fenty's personal net worth and long term wealth."
Furthermore, the lawsuit cited mismanagement of the singer's taxes, and poor consultation regarding the purchase of a home.
"....that of the millions of dollars in excessive commissions earned by Berdon from 2005 through September 2010, Berdon provided time sheets for only 17 percent of the time billed for work done on Fenty's accounts. Indeed, nearly 75 percent of the invoices Fenty received from Berdon contained little or no explanation or description of the work done by Berdon's employees, despite the fact that some employees purported to spend anywhere from two to 10 hours per day working on Fenty' s accounts."
When contacted for a comment, the Berdon LLP offices were closed.