LOS ANGELES (CN) - Mike Tyson claims in court that his manager at Live Nation Entertainment embezzled more than $300,000 from him and cost him more than $5 million all told.
Tyson, his wife Lakiha Tyson and Tyrannic LLC sued Brian Ourand and two corporations, in Superior Court: SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises, and Live Nation Entertainment.
SFX Financial is a subsidiary of Live Nation, according to the complaint, which refers to them as one entity: SFX/Live Nation. Ourand was a "senior executive" for SFX/Live Nation, the Tysons say.
The former boxing champ says he was their client.
In the complaint, he seeks damages for "Ourand's theft and embezzlement of more than $300,000.00 from the Tysons and based on defendant Ourand's false and misleading financial advice aimed at concealing his theft and embezzlement causing damages to the Tysons in excess of $5,000,000.00. Defendant Ourand was a senior executive employed by defendant SFX/Live Nation and was the relationship partner to the Tysons at the time of the theft."
SFX/Live Nation is a financial advisory firm registered with the SEC, which "markets itself as the premier financial firm to superstar athletes," the Tysons say in the complaint. They market and promote themselves in association with the multibillion-dollar promotions/concert company Live Nation.
The Tysons claim they hired the defendants believing they would "treat him different than the string of managers and financial advisers before it, who previously defrauded and stole from Mr. Tyson and squandered his fortune."
They say they appointed Ourand to manage their bankruptcy trust, invited him to their wedding, and gave him "full access to sign checks and total authority over the Tysons' accounts."
But as they tried to wrap up their bankruptcy proceedings, in July 2011, the Tysons say, they "discovered that defendant Ourand embezzled more than $300,000.00 from the Tysons and provided false and misleading financial advice to the Tysons' retained legal professionals to cover up his theft and embezzlement which caused the Tysons damages in excess of $5,000,000.00."
And, they claim, "SFX/Live Nation perpetrated its own oppressive and deceptive scheme to cover up defendant Ourand's conduct and to deflect blame for the theft and embezzlement."
They claim that SFX/Live Nation appointed a new "relationship partner" to their account, and did not tell them why until they asked. Only then "did defendant SFX/Live Nation reveal that defendant Ourand stole more than $300,000.00 from the Tysons."
But even then, the Tysons say, "Defendant SFX/Live Nation did not provide an accounting of the funds to the Tysons, but instead demanded the Tysons blindly trust them regarding what they represented the purported loss to be."
They also claim that SFX/Live Nation, knowing that the Tysons were represented by counsel, sent them directly a legal document "which would have waived the Tysons' right to file a lawsuit and would have bound the Tysons to strict confidentiality about the theft committed by defendant Ourand-a SFX/Live Nation senior executive who controlled the finances of numerous other superstar athletes."
The Tysons say SFX/Live Nation refused their request to timely return their files, and that so far as they know, "SFX/Live Nation has not reported defendant Ourand's conduct to the Securities and Exchange Commission and has permitted defendant Ourand to obtain lucrative work as a financial adviser elsewhere."
The Tysons seek an accounting and compensatory and punitive damages for conversion, fraud, intentional misrepresentation and concealment, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent hiring, retention and supervision.
They are represented by Mark Geragos with Geragos & Geragos.
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