Was Suge Knight just a pawn?

[BigMeazy]

CLUB 662

On the fateful night of September 7, 1996 Tupac joined the Death row entourage as it belatedly made its way to a charity event benefitting Barry’s Boxing Gym at Club 662. Club 662 is a Vegas establishment with a long and sorted history. Originally the building housed Don Jose’s Mexican Restaurant but in the early 80s it began its run as a popular nightclub.

Despite its popularity, the building housed a series of adult themed businesses opening first under the name Botany’s nightclub followed in rapid succession by club Metropolis, Babe’s topless bar and culminating in 1994 with the opening of Club 662.
Neither the club, nor the property on which it sat was owned by Knight as is often reported but by a New York City duo with ties to New York’s Gambino crime family.

Knight “despite his best efforts,” failed at every turn to secure a portion of the club’s ownership. All he could manage through the connections of Attorney Kelesis was an occasional renting of the building through Helen Thomas, the President of Platinum Road Inc. Thomas “the widow of Carl Thomas, a notorious Las Vegas underworld figure convicted in the late 70s of skimming $280,000 from the Tropicana casino,” held a long-term lease agreement that gave her control of the club, a function carried out in truth by Attorney Kelesis. The Thomas’s involvement in the property dated back to the launching of Botany’s, which was financed through a loan from Carl Thomas.

Knight was never allowed to deal directly with Thomas; Attorney Kelesis handled all business transaction between the two. As it were on the night in question, Knight dragged Shakur to the charity event on the suggestion of Kelesis who “asked Knight…to pass on word of the party to his celebrity friends to ensure a successful event.” An estimated 500 guests attended the event including boxers Mike Tyson and Tommy Hearns. Suge and Tupac obviously weren’t among the revelers.

Mike Tyson and Tupac Shakur with agent Frank Alexander hovering in the background.

SUGE’S BIG PAYOUTS

The owners of record for club 662 were Michael Blutrich and Lyle Pfeffer. These two are key in understanding the network that operated in the shadows of Death Row and Suge Knight. Despite generating $300 million in sales, Death Row never turned a profit. Debt and unexplained expenditures such as payments Knight reportedly made regularly to people with organized crime times, saddled the company.

Some reports place the total amount of these payments in the months leading up to Shakur’s death in the neighborhood of $800,000. There have been several explanations given for these payments the most consistently circulated being, attempts by Knight to buy a stake in the club property or renovation expenses and “payments made in an attempt to secure a management team to operate the club with the ability to secure a liquor license.”


No matter how you slice it, the money funneled from Death Row’s accounts undoubtedly went to the syndicate.

MICHAEL BLUTICH AND LYLE PFEFFER

One was a founding partner in a politically prominent New York law firm, the other a venture capitalist. Both were money-eyed hustlers with a larcenous bend. Together they entered into partnerships with a score of underworld figures. Called “typical swindlers” by some, the pair’s business deals prove they were anything but.

Michael D. Blutrich “the attorney” and Lyle K. Pfeffer “the capitalist” earned more than $500,000 annually through legitimate business dealings, however an insatiable desire to attain more led them to work with members of John Gotti’s Gambino group in a million dollar extortion scheme.
One of the most unique attributes the pair exhibited was an uncanny ability to form partnerships with people from varying backgrounds. This feature served them very well. While operating a Manhattan strip club called Scores, they openly courted and accepted as business partner’s crime associates of John Gotti Jr.

Blutrich was a founding partner in a New York City law firm that included several aides to Gov. Mario Cuomo. The firm “Blutrich, Falcone & Miller” later added Cuomo’s son Andrew to its partnership roster. Blutrich also figure prominently in entertainment circles buying and or investing in restaurants and nightclubs in New Rochelle, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He also occasionally dabbled in the promotion of boxing matches.

A move into the insurance business led to a legal entanglement that was indicative of Blutrich’s philosophy, it also provides the blueprint that exposed the connections between the manipulators of Marion Knight, organized crime and Las Vegas Metro Police Department.

3 Orlando businessmen in an attempt to gain control of National Heritage Insurance “a company dealing primarily in annuities,” approached Blutrich for help with arranging financing for the deal. Blutrich proceeded to help them by setting up a bank account from which he provided a hot check in the amount of $4 million. With the acquisition secured, the fraud began. Blutrich’s $4 million rescue required the buyers to dip into the company’s resources to cover the $3 million dollar deficit in Blutrich’s account. Blutrich soon thereafter began to appoint the companies leading figures. In so doing they gratefully granted him a $300,000 loan that served as seed money to open Scores. The company’s chief executive officer David L. Davies, “invested another $700,000 of his personal funds as a secret but principal partner” in the club.

RICHARD B. HERMAN

Nearly all of the biographical information available on Suge Knight details his stint as a non-descript lineman on the UNLV football team. None of this information is relevant in the Death Row story, however Knight’s connections to New York Attorney Richard Herman are pivotal.

Herman was the “first individual” with whom Knight conducted business with in Las Vegas. Herman also represented Scores. According to Knight, his dealings with Club 662 began after a consultation with his “accountant and lawyers…”

The accountant in question is the notorious Steven Cantrock formerly of Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman a subsidiary of Coopers & Lybrand. The attorney’s undoubtedly were Robert Amira, a Las Vegas entrepreneur of whom I will speak more on later,” and Herman. Knight’s Las Vegas dealings began after Cantrock introduced him to Herman. Through Herman, Suge began staging parties featuring Death Row artists as entertainment and soon thereafter the marquee was changed to read Club 662. This change led many to believe Knight was the owner of the club and foster the allusion that he was an innovative entrepreneur. Those allusions were part of the reason Shakur had agreed to sign with the label to begin with.

In reality, Richard Herman was the architect of the dealings that opened the pipeline from Death Row into Club 662. One key fact that has escaped every other Death Row narrative is the involvement of Herman in Blutrich’s National Heritage Insurance scam. In addition to being the legal representative of Scores, Herman “also a former law partner of Blutrich,” was one of those indicted in the Insurance scam. Herman though indicted twice was never brought to trial.

The success of Knight early on in Las Vegas was due to his relationship with Herman. The formula worked very well until the National Insurance indictment forced Herman out of the picture. It was at this time that Cantrock introduced Knight to Houston attorney Robert Amira. Amira would pick up as Suge’s lodestar but Herman remained intimately connected to all parties concerned.

another thing:

Ricardo "Kurupt Gotti Brown, an artist who occupied the post of Executive Vice President of Death Row Records announced that he reached an agreement with self-avowed Rollin 60 gang member Eugene "Big U" Henley aka Hannibal Muhammad of Uneek Music and Uneek Management [UM]. Henley has forged a number of ties to variety of entertainment figures such as the Game, Young Berg, Ving Rhames, Tiny Lister, Shortstop , Mishon & Mann. Uneek Management is one of the vehicles Henley has used in an effort to consolidate control of urban entertainment in Los Angeles. In addition to the addition of Brown "who assumed the name Young Gotti as an ode to imprisoned Rollin 60 shot caller and former Death Row Records A&R rep, Keith "Keitaroc" Parker," Henley is behind a group of West Coast rappers who've formed a coalition known as 1st Generation. Among those involved in the Uneek project are Kurupt, Mc Eiht and Chill, Jayo-Felony, Gangsta, King T., Sir Jinx and producer Kevin "Battlecat" Gilliam "the younger brother of Keitaroc associate Christopher "Big C-Style" Bowden. Battlecat's services were the subject of litigation between recently released financier Michael "Harry O" Harris and Suge Knight. Harris through a legal brief filed by his wife sought to recover royalties from projects Battlecat worked on while he was under contract with Harry O and his ex-wife Lydia.


Quote:
A letter containing incriminating evidence against James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, a member of Intercope's A&R staff has surfaced apparently marking the retraction of Rosemond's protective status. Indicted in June on drug-trafficking charges Rosemond has remained in custody as his attorney Jeffrey Lichtman hasn't sought bail for his client, nor has he reviewed the evidence laid out in a discovery letter filed on September 12th in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y. The letter contains accusations that between January 2010 and June 2011 members of an organization headed by Rosemond concealed drug shipments in "road cases" shipped from Los Angeles to New York. The same cases were used to secret return shipments of cash totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars shipped by Rockit Cargo Ltd. None of the corporate parties associated with Rockit Cargo, Interscope nor Interscope's parent company Vivendi SA Universal Music Group stand accused of participating in the endeavor but the question remains as to how members of the Rosemond organization gained access to Interscope's Los Angeles headquarters to drop off and retrieve the shipments of drugs and money. It is worth noting that Rosemond maintains links to members of the Rollin 60s and publicly bragged of his use of the gangs members to intimidate rapper Tupac Shakur during their highly publicized feud more than a decade ago.


The testimony of Winston Harris 'a lieutenant in a New York drug ring fronted by James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond,' sealed the fate of the former music industry operative. Rosemond was found guilty on 13 separate drug related counts in a trial that featured Harris's revelation that he had retrieved a box from the Beverly Hilton containing $500,000 drug related in funds. The trial featured allegations of Henchman's use of music-equipment cases to secret cash and drugs. Henchman has been linked to industry acts ranging from Salt & Pepper to Brandy, the sister of Ray J.

[BigMeazy]

Should have posted it at the start this info is from the Brix Central Crimefile site.

[BigMeazy]

more from the Crimefile site

After it was determined that Michael and Lydia shared an undivided 100% interest in the $107 million judgment against Suge and Death Row Records, Inc the case entered into a series of legal motions which only served to further convolute the financial issues surrounding the case. The trouble was the number of competing interest in the judgment and the ambiguities surrounding who owned what? First Lydia Harris sued Suge and Death Row at the behest of Michael and as soon as the ruling came down that indeed Lydia was entitled to half of Death Rows earnings, Michael filed a notice of intervention in the case pronouncing that he held the same rights as Lydia in regard to the judgment against Knight and Death Row Records.

The divorce may prove to be a matter of legal expediency as it provided Michael the chance to serve on the Creditor Committees, a move which Todd Nielson the bankruptcy trustee had opposed. The divorce necessitated the addition of Michael Harris to both of the committees overseeing the distribution of funds as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings. While seeking his addition to the committee, Michael also sought to remove Lydia from the committee in an order dated September 15, 2006. His reasoning was that it was he and not Lydia who had “undertaken every single measure in attempting to collect,” the $107 million judgment.

No sooner had Michael initiated the step’s to collect the judgment via an aggressive campaign of discovery against Suge and Death Row that they “being Suge and the Row Inc.” filed for bankruptcy protection. This was a step which was undertaken in an effort to avoid paying the full amount of the judgment. Despite her repeated claims of having an understanding of complex legal issues, business deals and contracts, Michael has attacked her repeatedly in his motions stating in another filing that “Lydia…in state court proceedings, demonstrated her inability to represent the $107 million claim against their debtors. It is here Michael claims Lydia made an attempt to settle with Suge behind Michael’s back, despite the community property claim then in effect on the judgment.

Lydia’s alleged efforts to secure a settlement with Suge have been refuted by her but is detailed in a number of documents Michael’s lawyers filed sighting a $1 million dollar payment she received from Suge. This led Michael to label her “dishonest and inept,” incapable even of “looking after her own interests” in the case.
Again it should be noted that the salacious claims contained in many of the legal motions have served the purpose of establishing the need for Michael to be added to the two Trustee Committees involved in the case. It is interesting to note that the court appointed bankruptcy trustee viewed Lydia as “a productive member of both committees.” Mr. Nielson continued to work to block Harris from actively participating in the proceedings at one point reminding the court of Harris’s incarceration and restricted civil liberties in an effort to discourage his participation. The legal jousting continued back and forth and emerged as a battle primarily between Harris and Nielson.

Harris’ battle with the trustee is indicative of the hidden hands seeking to protect and preserve Death Row’s assets from Harris. The invoking of Harris’ status as a convicted felon “presently incarcerated for twenty-five years to life…for attempted murder and narcotics distribution,” speaks of David Kenner his former attorney and his cohorts. So as the battle continues Harris convinced his wife to join him in transferring “all rights, title and interest,” in the Death Row Records Inc., and Suge Knight bankruptcy matters to a company called Conquest Media LLC. David P. Simonds filed a notice of intent to transfer Michael’s claim in the amount of $117,318,631.50. On April 24, 2007 Lydia’s claim in the amount of $107,000,000 was also transferred to Conquest Media. Lydia returned to court in May of 2008 seeking to transfer the claim back to herself from Conquest. The following month Conquest filed an objection to this motion by Lydia and arranged a hearing on the matter for August 8. The hearing was later cancelled after Lydia and Conquest entered into private negotiations.

The $1,000,000 dollar payment Lydia received from Suge would come back to haunt her as she failed to disclose her 50% ownership in Death Row when she filed for personal bankruptcy in 1999. Lydia’s bankruptcy trustee drug Lydia into court seeking payment from the $1,000,000 she received claiming it as property of Lydia’s bankruptcy estate. This issue was table while Lydia negotiated more than $1,000,000 in legal fees owed to attorney Sharon Z. Weiss. In May of 2009 Lydia, Michael, Weiss, Conquest Media chairman Alvin Brown and the Helen Frazer, Lydia’s bankruptcy trustee.

Here’s where it get’s interesting. Alvin Brown chairman of Conquest Media LLC, holds the rights to the claim held by the Harris’s and acted as power of attorney for Michael Harris. Brown represented Michael in settlement talks between Knight and his attorney of record who was at that time Dermot Givens. It is interesting to note that email communication indicates that Givens was instructed by Michael to meet with attorney David Casselman and finalize the terms of settlement in 2005. Givens later represented Suge Knight in his negotiations with Lydia which were listed as occurring behind Michael’s back. Now this may be but it doesn’t explain the fact that Conquest Media LLC lists its address as 486 N. Camden Drive, Suite 272E in Beverly Hills. Dermot Givens business address is listed as 433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600 in Beverly Hills, Ca.

Conquest later entered an unsuccessful bid of $10 million for Death Rows assets from the bankruptcy estate. Ultimately WIDEawake Entertainment Group Inc. won the bidding with an $18 million bid. That has proven a huge headache in itself but for the sake of clarity I’ll pass on that aspect of the drama for now.
In a declaration filed in August 2008, Lydia Harris exposed Conquest Media Group LLC as an entity created by Michael and attorney Alvin Brown for the purpose of purchasing “the Death Row Records Music Library.” She claims she was “intent to maintain control of the judgment” but decided to accept a promise from Michael and Brown of $3 million if she agreed to sign over control of her portion of the judgment to Conquest Media as detailed above. According to Lydia she changed her mind after Suge “threatened” her in bankruptcy court. It was at this time that she decided to curb her pursuit of Suge and accept the $3 million settlement offer.

Michael had done his homework identifying the potential issues involving Lydia’s bankruptcy filing by conferring with the law firm which represented her in the case. She was told she would be paid after Conquest secured the Death Row library. After their bid failed, Lydia then began to push for the $3 million but was put off repeatedly. It may be coincidental but it certainly appears as though Michael employed the same tactics against Lydia as is alleged that were used to secure the talents of Andre Young and Tracy Curry from Ruthless Records when Death Row was launched. And so the question is. Is Suge still working for Harry-O?



ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS ANY TRUTH TO THESE QUOTES?

[⠀]

Interesting stuff, so while the blacks were running around pretending to be italians the italians were caking up in the cut thanks to the blacks?

Oh Sugar Bear, now we know how you got there...