*R. Kelly’s federal sex crimes trial in New York has revealed that his finances are in shambles.
According to the Billboard article “R. Kelly’s Publishing Catalog Is for Sale, But What’s It Worth?” the disgraced singer is trying to sell his publishing catalog because his “funds are depleted,” his attorney Deveraux Cannick shared with the court.
Despite Kelly’s catalog having endless hits, no one will touch it. The music publishing “would likely only sell at an eight- to 10-times multiple, or between $8.4 million and $10.5 million.”
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“It [Kelly’s catalog] has been offered to me a number of times by his team, and of course, I’ve said no for the obvious reasons,” Hipgnosis Songs Fund founder and CEO of The Family (Music) Ltd, Merck Mercuriadis said to Billboard.
Mercuriadis continued, “There are incredible songs in that catalog, but why would you take that kind of risk?”
Per Billboard, Kelly told interviewer Gayle King that he only had $350,000 in the bank because associates had been stealing his money.
“There are these people — and I don’t even know who they are — that still have some sort of access or control of his money and his assets,” says Michael Leonard, an attorney on Kelly’s forthcoming Chicago trial. “For 15-20 years, he had no access to the money. He didn’t even have a cash card. He would literally have to ask his financial people, ‘Can I have a couple hundred bucks,’ or, ‘I need a car.’ But he had no ability to engage in financial transactions, and all these people around him did. And all these people around him used all his money and took his money.”
Billboard estimates that R. Kelly has roughly $1.7 million in a “royalties account” from RCA but at one point the label was unsure who should receive the payout.
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