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Motown Magic Sues Willkie Farr for Fraud, Breach of Contract
Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been sued in federal court in Los Angeles by Lamont Dozier, the cofounder of songwriting and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, which was behind hit Motown acts like The Supremes and The Isley Brothers. At issue: Willkie's role advising on an issuance of Bowie Bonds, the asset-backed security for song royalties sometimes called Pullman Bonds because they were popularized by the banker David Pullman, now chairman and CEO of The Pullman Group in New York. Dozier v. Willkie, 2:2009cv05145.
Bowie Bonds took the market by storm in 1997 when Pullman helped securitize future royalties from 300 David Bowie songs, including his 1972 hit “Ziggy Stardust.” The bonds were once hailed as a new form of IP securitization and other artists soon followed Bowie's bond lead. (A legal battle in the estate of entertainer James Brown revealed how Brown mortgaged royalties to hit songs for up-front payments from bond sales.)
The Willkie case includes as defendants Bankers Trust, now owned by Deutsche Bank, and a group of John Does. According to the 11-page complaint, Dozier was represented by Willkie in a securitized transaction in June 1998 with Pullman and a New York-based brokerage firm called Fahnestock & Co. The transaction set up entities for Dozier to issue bonds that were purchased in exchange for royalties to a catalog of songs over a 10-year time period. Dozier's former partners, brothers Edward and Brian Holland, entered into identical securitized transactions. (See, http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/files/lamont-dozier-complaint.pdf)
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