Beyond The Horizon
UMG Lawyer Donald Zakarin And The Rule 11 Sanctions Against Diddy Timeline (Part 2) (7/7/24)
Universal Music Group (UMG) and its CEO Lucian Grainge were dismissed from a lawsuit involving Sean "Diddy" Combs after the plaintiff's lawyer admitted there was "no legal basis" for the claims. The lawsuit, initially filed by producer Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones, accused Diddy of sexual assault and harassment during the production of Diddy's 2023 "The Love Album." It also implicated UMG and Grainge in a broader conspiracy under the RICO statute and sex trafficking laws​.
UMG's legal team had argued the claims were baseless and intended to seek legal penalties against Tyrone Blackburn, Jones' attorney, for including them in the suit. In May 2024, Blackburn acknowledged the lack of legal foundation for the allegations against UMG and Grainge, requesting their dismissal with prejudice, which prevents future refiling. UMG's lead attorney, Donald Zakarin, criticized Blackburn for bringing unfounded accusations that he described as "recklessly false" and potentially libelous outside the context of a legal complaint​.
Despite the dismissal of UMG and Grainge from the lawsuit, Diddy continues to face multiple abuse allegations, which he has strongly denied.
In this episode, we take a look at the timeline relating to the Rule 11 sanctions.
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to contact me:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
source:
gov.uscourts.nysd.616406.61.1.pdf (courtlistener.com)
- Duration:
- 15m
- Broadcast on:
- 07 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
an official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help Program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In this episode, we're going to dive right back in to the timeline surrounding the Rule 11 sanctions motion that was filed by UMG against Tyrone Blackburn and Rodney Jones. 18. April 4, 2024. Zaccarn files letter informing court of Judge Cote's ordering of sanctions against Mr. Blackburn is relevant to the pending motion. 19. April 9, 2024. Blackburn files a reply letter to court, again doubling down on claims. The letter repeats conclusions and provides no facts to justify any of the claims against the UMG defendants in the SAC and does not respond to the legal flaws identified in the Zaccarn opposition letter. Plaintiff proposed second amended complaint is not pled in bad faith. Plaintiff's claims are not conclusionary or false. The defendants or partners in the Combs Rico Enterprise. defendants recklessly disregard the existence of sex trafficking. In the end, UMG Motown and Lucian Grange and his capacity as CEO of UMG are equally as liable for Sean Combs sex trafficking in Rico Enterprises as Mr. Combs is. 20. April 9, 2024. Court conference to discuss motion to file SAC and court orders the same. As noted in the Zaccarn reply declaration, Mr. Blackburn made direct misrepresentations to the court regarding service of process. Mr. Blackburn refused to answer the court's question about where the now abandoned parent company allegation had come from and Mr. Blackburn ignored court's observation that Mr. Blackburn's theory for liability against the UMG defendants had no legal basis. 21. April 10th and 11th, 2024. Email exchange between Zaccarn and Mr. Blackburn in which Mr. Blackburn demands documents regarding the license agreement, Zaccarn questions Blackburn's good faith basis for questioning the license agreement and rejects his demands. Mr. Blackburn states in response to my question, do you have any good faith basis for questioning the authenticity of the agreement, which has been authenticated by the person who negotiated it and signed it in her declaration? Answer, yes, but provides nothing. Zaccarn responds on April 11th noting that Blackburn continues to make statements without any support and urges him to dismiss the claims immediately even before filing the SAC. 22. April 12th, 2024. SAC filed. Mr. Blackburn, Jones drops one TVPA claim and the premise liability claim changes the foundational theory of parent company for general business partnership, eliminates allegations of presence of Grange at Combs Homes, but persists with the accusations of criminal racketeering and sex trafficking. 23. April 22nd, 2024. Blackburn conveys a purported settlement offer via email, which consists of demanding a declaration from the UMG defendants making admissions, which would not be truthful about the supposed misuse of the money paid by Motown under the license agreement and demanding the production of documents to which Mr. Blackburn had no entitlement. 24. April 23rd, 2024. Mr. Blackburn conveys slight revisions to settlement offer via email, 25. April 24th, 2024. The UMG defendants file their motion to dismiss the SAC. 26. April 24th, 2024. Mr. Blackburn acknowledges filing of the motion to dismiss and reiterates a supposed settlement offer. Please advise if your client is open to the offer that was made in my previous emails which you have chosen to ignore. If yes, then plaintiff will voluntarily dismiss the claims against your client with prejudice. We will then move to have the complaint sealed on consent. 27. April 24th, 2024. Zaccarin responds to Mr. Blackburn's settlement proposal, rejecting it outright and making it clear that Mr. Blackburn cannot file three separate pleadings, filled with offensively false criminal allegations, and then scayed away free by proposing terms for dismissal of the claims. And the letter notes of the SAC as against the UMG defendants were immediately dismissed. Mr. Blackburn and his client might yet be able to moderate, however slightly, the adverse consequences they will suffer. They did not immediately dismiss the SAC against the UMG defendants. 28. April 24th, 2024. Mr. Blackburn responds to Zaccarin's email doubling down on the supposed information he has to support his claim. Prior to filing this lawsuit, I spoke with several individuals who were present at the recording studios at Chalice and Mr. Combs Homes, as well as the parties that Mr. Combs hosted for the love album. They all stated to me that they witnessed the things my client claimed in his pleadings, we will secure those declarations. You reached out and denied those claims. For example, you said that your client never provided bags of cash to Mr. Combs. My client says he saw people bringing bags of cash into Mr. Combs house and provided those details to law enforcement about where those bags of cash were located in his home. He said he was informed by Mr. Combs that the money came from your clients. You denied it so it was removed from the pleading. The same goes for the remaining claims, and I'm not going to rehash them all here. If your client's position is that you adhere to the terms of the agreement with Mr. Combs and love records, then it should not be a problem for them to attest to this. If you do not want to turn over any documents, that's fine. Your client has a duty to preserve them, and we will get the requested documents via subpoena. Attesting to the fact that your client was not aware of Mr. Combs actions will be spelled out in clear and certain terms by the SDNY, and they adhered to the terms of the agreement, should be an easy lift, unless your client cannot honestly attest to it. If you want to file your sanctions motion, you are free to do so. I did my due diligence, and I have my declarations and witness statements to defend my actions. Notably, while Mr. Blackburn claims to have declarations and witness statements, he's refused to identify a single such witness or provide a single such declaration or statement. 29, April 26, 2024, UMG defendants serve their second rule 11 motion directed to the SAC. 30, May 8, 2024. Mr. Blackburn emails the car in proposing to dismiss only the claims against Grange, but keep claims against UMG in Motown. My client has decided to withdraw all claims against Lucian Grange. We will proceed with our causes of action against Motown and UMG. A few weeks ago, around April 11, 2024, I asked you to provide the Signature Certification page from DocuSign for the agreement you allege Sean Combs signed with Motown Records. You refuse to provide the Signature Certification page. As a result, we have secured over 30 examples of Mr. Com's signature and retained the services of two handwriting experts with a combined experience of 70 years. These experts have concluded that Mr. Combs did not sign the document you presented to the court. In addition to the expert reports, I will receive and file with the court this week I have sworn declarations from a former Bad Boy Records executive who had tested personally signing agreements and contracts at Mr. Combs' direction. Additionally, in light of my expert's reports and what I'm confident will be a Signature Certification from DocuSign will confirm the same, I will file a cross-motion for sanctions under the court's inherent power against your clients and your firm for conducting this litigation in bad faith by intentionally filing a document which you knew or should have known was false. I attempted to resolve this issue with you. You refuse to speak with me on the phone or provide the DocuSign Signature confirmation page. You chose instead to be rude and disrespectful. As a result, plaintiff had to spend thousands of dollars on experts to establish what could have been easily discovered through conversation and a review of the DocuSign Signature confirmation page. 2-1 May 9, 2024 Zakarans emailed Mr. Blackburn again laying out the baselessness of all the claims and all three complaints and the irrelevancy of the Combs' signature issue, noting that of course the claims against Grange should be dismissed with prejudice but so should all claims against Motown and UMG recordings. While detailing again the flaws in the SAC and that the UMG defendants rule 11 motion filed 32-May 10, 2024 Mr. Blackburn emails Zakarans again talking about the irrelevant issue of whether Combs' signature is on a license agreement but states that he and Jones consent to dismissing all claims against the UMG defendants with prejudice 33-May 10, 2024. Email exchanges between Mr. Blackburn and Zakarans regarding the mechanics of the dismissal. Zakarans rejects a stipulation as well as a joint motion and states that a motion to dismiss is necessary and if appropriate UMG defendants will then consent to granting of the motion. Mr. Blackburn agrees to provide a draft motion. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's extra help program my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify it pays to find out go to ssa.gov/extrahelp. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 34 May 13, 2024 Email for Mr. Blackburn providing instead of a draft motion a stipulation for a dismissal. Zakarans rejects it and offers to prepare a motion and declaration for a dismissal for Mr. Blackburn. Mr. Blackburn agrees to this procedure and Zakarans prepares and sends Mr. Blackburn a declaration and notice a motion for a dismissal. Email exchanges that day between Zakarans and Mr. Blackburn and which Mr. Blackburn makes some changes to the declaration and Zakarans makes a further change. Mr. Blackburn then makes another change and files the motion and declaration for dismissal. 35 May 13, Mr. Blackburn improperly files the motion for dismissal calling it a stipulation and it gets rejected by the court. 36 May 14, 2024 The motion is refiled. Mr. Blackburn is refiled correctly as a motion for dismissal and Zakarans files his declaration consenting to the motion and reserving all of his client's rights. 37 May 14, 2024 Judge Oakin orders dismissal of all claims against the UMG defendants with prejudice. 38 May 14, 2024 Mr. Blackburn emails Zakarans expressing gratitude for how Zakarans dealt with the matter. 39 May 17, 2024 UMG moves for sanctions under U.S. Code 28, Section 1927 and the inherent power of the court. 40 May 17, 2024 At 2.51 p.m. Mr. Blackburn reacts to the motion with anger and outrage in an email to Zakarans accusing him of playing dirty tricks to get the dismissal. Even though I have a basis to believe that your client knowingly presented a document to the court that Sean Combs did not sign, I still agree to dismiss your client from the case. The absence of Sean Combs's signature and the public statements from your client concerning the partnership fall within the scope of a general business partners under the New York and California law. Not only did I discover that he did not sign the agreement, but I also discovered the fact that your client has a history and pattern of covering up sexual assaults committed by their artists by paying their victims through unmarked international bank accounts. I have seen these agreements and I know the account numbers. 41 May 17, 2020 24 Zakarans response to Mr. Blackburn rejecting his accusations, noting he has filed multiple pleadings and sent emails filled with completely false assertions and anticipating that his opposition to the motion for sanctions will be no different. 42 May 17, 2024 At 534 p.m. Eastern Time Blackburn sends another email to prior cashman. I could have defended the motion to dismiss by providing the reports from my handwriting experts. I felt bad for your client because, through my research, for the handwriting experts, when I compiled over 50 examples of his signature from old contracts with UMG and other record labels, it's evident that he had a pattern and practice of defrauding people in the industry by intentionally having others sign agreements on his behalf so he could preserve the option of denial later on. I shared this view with my client and convinced him to agree to the voluntary dismissal. As I stated to him, it's unconscionable to sue UMG defendants in light of what we have discovered because they were victims of fraud. I voluntarily dismissed the case to focus primarily on Sean Combs and the remaining defendants. Notably absent from your previous email is any denial of your client's paying off sexual assault victims with secret international accounts. I hope they are prepared to explain these transactions. I anticipate Mr. Grange will clutch his pearls, pretend that he knew nothing of the sort, and fired the head of legal and A&R to save his hide. Your clients are as bad if not worse than Sean Combs, and I hope they are prepared to explain this. Unclean Hands 43. May 18th, 2024 Zakar in response to Mr. Blackburn's email, noting that having reviewed all of their communications, contrary to Mr. Blackburn's assertions, at no time did Zakar in or UMG ever offer promise or even suggest that if the claims against UMG were dismissed, they would forego seeking sanctions. All right, folks, well, there you have it. That's a wrap up of the whole entire sanctions conversation that we've been having when it comes to the rule 11 sanctions and motions that have been filed and now being pressed in court by the legal representation of UMG and Lucian Grange. So it's going to be interesting to see how this all progresses and to see if it continues to build, because if it does, then Blackburn could be looking at some, you know, some serious penalties here. So we'll keep an eye on things and when we have some new information, we'll definitely get it added to the catalog. But that's going to do it for this one. And all of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box. An official message from Medicare A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save more money.