Cher sues Universal Music over 'creative accounting'
Cher claims UMG hid royalties owed to her and Sonny Bono by attributing income to international arm.
Cher has sued Universal Music group over $US 5 million in royalties she
believes the company hid through creative accounting that she and the heirs of
her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono, are owed.
Cher alleges that an audit of UMG’s financial reports between 2000 and 2003
show that UMG executives engaged in creative accounting to hide royalty revenue
from two Sonny & Cher compilation albums.
Reuters reperts that Sonny & Cher struck a deal in 1972 to receive up to
50 per cent of net royalties received by UMG.
Cher alleges that UMG later distributed a 1999 compilation and then
attributed the income to UMG’s international arm to conceal the true amount of
royalties owed to Cher and Bono’s descendents.