Crying Straight To The Bank? 50 Cent’s Charm Can’t Save Him $16 Million

Written By Cyrus Langhorne

G-Unit leader 50 Cent is still $16 million in the hole after reportedly failing to convince a judge he did not use trade secrets to mold his popular SMS Audio headphones line.

50 Cent
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Details of Curtis Jackson’s legal battle not ending up in his favor surfaced Tuesday (October 7).

Gangsta rapper 50 Cent charmed law enforcement officers and others when he turned up at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in August, but he didn’t persuade a judge to erase a $16 million debt. In a 15-page ruling, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Peter Blanc said 50 Cent and his attorneys offered him no good reason to throw out an arbitrator’s decision that the rapper stole trade secrets from an audio company and used them to create his own line of headphones. (Palm Beach Post)

These are the initial details from the $16 million case…

Buzz of the under wraps case hit the Internet back in April .

The new court papers show 50 Cent needs to pay $11.6 million in damages for misappropriation of trade secrets, unjust enrichment and breach of confidentiality; and another $4.4 million in legal fees and expenses. In a nutshell, here’s what happened: An arbitrator in West Palm Beach found that the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, stole design secrets from Bradenton manufacturer Sleek Audio to make his own headphones, Street by 50 and Synch by 50. (Miami Herald)

Reports also claimed Fif has remained quiet about the loss despite its high-profile significance.

50 was walloped in arbitration last summer — and a federal court in Miami just affirmed the award to Sleek. The singer of Candy Shop and 21 Questions desperately tried to keep the award documents sealed, but the federal court unsealed them recently. So far, 50’s not talking, and neither are his lawyers. Through his company G-Unit LLC, Jackson and Sleek teamed up in early 2011 to market Sleek by 50, a line of wireless, over-the-ear headphones. (Miami Herald)

Reports of 50 and Sleek’s decision to part ways landed online in spring 2011.

In actuality, it was G-Unit that terminated a Brand Licensing Agreement that it had entered into with Sleek, which termination automatically triggered the termination of the earlier announced tri-party agreement. However, not long after the termination of the tri-party agreement, TV Goods and 50 Cent, via his affiliate company, SMS Audio, LLC, entered into a Term Sheet for the two parties to continue joint efforts to produce and distribute a direct response television infomercial to globally market a wireless over-the-ear headphone product offered or sold by SMS that is endorsed by and/or and bears the name of “50 Cent.” Sleek is not a party to that Term Sheet. (Yahoo News)

18 Comments

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

18 Comments

  1. 50 needs to stick to making music. Getting lucky on that water deal made him think he was a great businessman instead of just a rapper.

  2. 50 needs to stick to making music. Getting lucky on that water deal made him think he was a great businessman instead of just a rapper.

  3. Trade secrets? So there was no way he could’ve attained that information any other place. What 50 did if true is no different than what others have done. Henry Ford learned from his competition, Dave Thomas worked for Colonel Sanders, the list goes on of people that worked under a great company and left and started their own company.

  4. Trade secrets? So there was no way he could’ve attained that information any other place. What 50 did if true is no different than what others have done. Henry Ford learned from his competition, Dave Thomas worked for Colonel Sanders, the list goes on of people that worked under a great company and left and started their own company.

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