Cher sues UMG over royalties

June 02, 2009 The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims an audit of UMG's accounting to the singer-actress from 2000 to 2003 showed that UMG execs "engaged in wrongful tactics" designed to hide revenue from two hit compilation albums. [...] the complaint alleges that UMG later made a deal with Warner Music U.K. to distribute a 1999 compilation called "Cher The Greatest Hits," then funnelled the money through UMG's international arm to conceal the amount of royalties owed to Cher and the Bono heirs. "Instead of reporting to and paying plaintiffs their share of the revenues generated by Warner UK, UMG Recordings, in an egregious example of self-dealing, apparently inserted Universal International as a middleman in the transaction ... for the sole purpose of diverting money that rightfully belonged to Plaitinffs to Universal International," the complaint says.

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