S. Samuel
R&B star Ryan Leslie reportedly lost out on another judgment in his $1 million stolen laptop case and must now dish out even more cash from his own pockets.
According to reports, R. Les is now expected to pay roughly $200,000 more on top of the $1 million he already owes German plaintiff Armin Augstein.
A Grammy-nominated rapper whose music files disappeared when his laptop was stolen was ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million to a German man who claims to have found the computer in a forest. “He made a second reward video and offered $1 million for just the intellectual property on the external hard drive and computer, the session files,” David DeStefano, Leslie’s attorney, told ABC News. “They’re different from just an MP3, MP3s are nothing for a producer or a studio engineer, they can’t do anything with them. They need the session files. These were his compositions.” On Friday, the court once again sided with Augstein and ordered Leslie to pay an additional $180,000 to Augstein for interest that accrued between when the laptop was found, in 2010, and when the decision came down from federal court in 2012. (ABC News)
Leslie’s attorney, David DeStefano, plans to fight the latest ruling.
DeStefano said he is hoping to file briefs for the appeal process soon. “This music was stolen from him,” DeStefano said. “That was it. That was his composition. Those were his files, and he was unable to release an album for two years. So as an artist he released two albums in 2009 and was nominated in 2009, and then he was not able to release an album for two years.” (ABC News)
A few weeks back. the popular singer publicly addressed his legal woes during a live concert.
“And despite what the jury said, that million dollar reward is still out there for anybody who can return all my compositions to me. That’s why I never took the video off of YouTube. I never got anything back, but luckily God blessed me with talent and I could make some of the music over again, you know what I’m saying? … So I appreciate each and every one of y’all for your support tonight and for the future ’cause we gonna keep making this music and we gonna try to work something out with my man over in Germany – maybe he misunderstood – but this is a record off that album.” (Real Talk NY)
Details of the court ruling against Les turned into a hot topic last November.
Jurors taught a big-talking hip-hop artist a lesson about broken promises yesterday when they ordered him to pay the $1 million reward he had offered for the return of his stolen laptop. Cheapskate performer and producer Ryan Leslie must fork over the Benjamins to auto-repair-shop owner Armin Augstein, who found the computer while walking his dog and turned it over to German cops in November 2010. Augstein, who returned home to Pulheim, Germany, after testifying against Leslie in Manhattan federal court, told The Post by phone he felt “very good” about the verdict. “I’m very happy . . . that the American judicial system, which is so totally different from ours, functioned so well with a jury that are not professionals and are laymen,” he said in German through one his lawyers, Steven Thal. (New York Post)
Check out some past Ryan Leslie footage:
