Sad news -- CBC has the story:
Songwriter Leonard Cohen sues former manager over missing fundsThe disconnected phones speak volumes...
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen is suing his former business manager, alleging she siphoned $5 million US from his personal savings and investments while he spent time in a Buddhist monastery.
Cohen, best known for songs such as Bird on a Wire and Suzanne, filed the lawsuit this week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In it, he alleges Kelley Lynch took millions from his accounts between 1994 and 1999, while Cohen was living at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles.
In the lawsuit, Cohen says the amount of money taken was far greater than the 15 per cent management compensation to which Lynch was entitled. Cohen, 70, had planned to live on his savings in retirement, and had stopped touring and making new songs while at the monastery.
The suit says that Cohen discovered Lynch's activities when an informant approached his daughter last October. It says he investigated and fired Lynch a short time later. She had worked for him for 17 years.
A Los Angeles phone number for Kelley Lynch was disconnected and she could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The suit also names Richard Westin, a tax professor and lawyer who allegedly was hired by Lynch to help her defraud Cohen. Westin didn't immediately return a message left Wednesday.
Leave a comment