# 9 THE ATTORNEY GENERAL ENTERS

Looking back, it seems absurd that Buddy Dallas and David Cannon could get the  Attorneys General of two states to attack Bob and me.

It was absurd. But it worked. 

Sonny Jones, one of AG Henry McMaster’s senior assistants, and Grace Lewis, with the Georgia AG, entered on September 24, 2007. It was another James Brown hearing before Judge Early.  Nobody objected.  After all, the amount David Cannon couldn’t account for had risen to more than $7 million --  including the $5 million “check to nobody” David  had cashed at a local bank in 1999.

Buddy and others have used three litigation strategies in the James Brown cases:

1.     Throwing under the bus   

2.      “Lying by lawyer” – Change lawyers & conceal facts from new one.

3.     Changing Courts – and back again – as needed.

At the September 24 hearing Buddy’s and Al’s new lawyer, Stan Jackson, did not realize he was a victim of  strategy #2. 

 Stan was arguing a motion Buddy and Al had filed in late August – to declare Brown’s wholly-owned company, James Brown Enterprises, Inc. (“JBE”), an asset of Brown’s Estate. Not of Brown’s 2000 Trust.

JBE gets about 2/3 of Brown’s royalties for more than 800 songs. The royalties had generated about $3 million a year for more than a decade.

As proof, Stan produced JBE’s tax returns and an affidavit of Brown’s accountant Phil Farr. Stan used these to support his claim that the tax returns – showing Brown, individually, as the owner -- were the “best evidence” that JBE was in Brown’s estate. Not the Trust.

Stan also filed a stipulation I had refused to sign.  And Bob hadn't seen. The trustees, Brown’s companion, grandson Forlando and others had stipulated JBE was not in the Trust. The stipulation said the only assets in the 2000 Trust at Brown’s death were Brown’s Beech Island home estate and a small amount of cash.  

The problem:  Nearly Everything Stan was told – and repeated -- was false. JBE was in Brown’s Trust. [Within weeks Phil would produce tax returns saying the Trust owned JBE.] 

Buddy, David and Forlando knew the representations were false. But Stan didn’t.  And Bob and I didn’t.

After Stan’s argument, Judge Early went around the room.  Although the record was clear that we had refused to sign the stipulation, I stated that as special administrators we did not have evidence to refute Buddy and Al’s representation that JBE was never put in Brown’s Trust.

It’s hard to see how this simple, true statement would embroil Bob and me in 6 years of fabricated litigation.  And be used by Attorney General McMaster to dismember the “I Feel Good” Trust.

But David, Buddy and Forlando had a plan.  And by September 2007 powerful Powell Goldstein was  representing both Forlando and the group trying to purchase Brown’s music empire.

They would show us how it was done.

Years later Buddy told me he was the one who got the Georgia AG to come in.  David Cannon got Attorney General McMaster.

Next Post:  # 10   WHAT ELIOT SPITZER TAUGHT HENRY McMASTER – AND US

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#8 AUGUST: RICHLAND COUNTY

        On June 24, 2010 Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball said of the primary Attorney General Henry McMaster had just lost in his bid to be governor:  “ If politics is entertainment then South Carolina has become Broadway.”

        What Larry didn’t  report was that McMaster was also starring in the James Brown Opera. Opera because the only way to follow its  twists and turns is with both a plot summary AND supertitles. Here’s the plot summary:

ACT I:   AUGUST, RICHLAND COUNTY  [2007]

      AG McMaster, in the person of Sr. Assistant Sonny Jones, is invited by David Cannon and Buddy Dallas to enter the James Brown case.  He does so.  On a white horse. With the Georgia AG at his side. They sound the cry:

       We must rid ourselves of Bob Buchanan and Adele Pope.  They have ousted

       the innocent David Cannon.  They have done so to get the  $5 million commission        

      on Brown’s $100 million  Estate. They will aid non-wife Tommie Rae Hynie and

       the clients of Louis Levenson.

       Grandson Forlando and AG McMaster appear on television to denounce Bob &

Adele. Grandson also files a federal lawsuit to paralyze the “I Feel Good” Trust.

   

      But the millions Cannon took begin to be a problem. The AG – now wanting to be

governor -  can fix that. He will make everyone happy.  Except the needy students James Brown created the “I Feel Good” Trust to benefit. He will:

1.    Take control of Brown’s assets, and install his own trustee;

2.    Give ¼ of the “I Feel Good” Trust to the non-wife and put her and a non-son in control of Federal Copyright Termination Rights elections;

3.     Give another ¼ to Levenson’s clients, fewer than half of Brown’s claimed children --  ignoring the DNA-proven children, and others.

      ACT 1 ends with  AG McMaster, Hynie and Levenson proclaiming that they “speak as one.”  Bob and Adele are banished for suggesting this is not good for the “I Feel Good” Trust.  Or private property rights.  Or private philanthropy in South Carolina.

ACT II        RICHLAND COUNTY  [2010 -2103]

        But there are two problems.  The banished Bob & Adele have appealed.  And giving half of Brown’s $80 million charitable foundation to non-charities does create issues.  No problem.  The AG’s trustee will produce – actually, not produce -- a secret appraisal. Brown’s worldwide music empire will be declared to be worth under  $4.7 million.

       And the State and Hynie will stop the appeal by suing Bob and Adele for tens of millions of dollars.  For loss to a $4.7 million empire? No problem.

      The new AG and his trustee  will tell the State Supreme Court that Bob and Adele have committed the federal felony of overstating the value of Brown’s assets by $79 million to the IRS. Why? To get that $5 million commission.  On a $5 million estate.  That will fix them.

        Cannon will not be jailed. He will not be required to return the missing millions.  He is needed. He is the State’s witness against Bob and Adele in the suit another previously-aspiring governor, Kenneth Wingate, is pursing against  Bob and Adele for the State.

ACT III  RICHLAND, AIKEN COUNTIES  [2013 -2014]

        The S. C. Supreme Court voids the AG’s deal on May 8, 2013.  There is hope for the needy students.  But, no.

        On May 29 Hynie and Levenson ask the court to reinstate the AG’s settlement. Hearing this, the AG withdraws -- abandoning the “I Feel Good” Trust he has dismembered. Hynie, her lawyers and Levenson smile.  They may yet recover the $31 million AG McMaster gave them.

                             ******************************************

     It all began in August 2007 when Buddy Dallas and David Cannon asked AG McMaster to help save them – and the “I Feel Good” Trust – from Bob and me.

     Confident their plan would succeed, on August 16, 2007 David Cannon wired $866,000 to Roatan Island --to complete his turnkey retirement  mansion.  He had bought his $200,000 lot  just after Brown died. 

Next Post:  # 9   THE ATTORNEY GENERAL ENTERS

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# 7 DAVID CANNON RESIGNS - 80 BOXES OF JAMES BROWN DOCUMENTS

            July 17, 20007. Another conference table.  Smaller than  March 26.  David’s Barnwell office.   David, Buddy and Al Bradley -- again.  Bob. Me -- again.  Jonathan Harling, a young attorney with Lewis & Babcock, litigation lawyers for Brown’s Estate and Trust.  

 

A speakerphone in the middle of the table.

 

David says we have seen all of the bank accounts. 

 

           As we get ready to leave, we open a small manila file.  It contains a copy of the $900,000 check. The July 2006 check from Universal Music is  payable to “James Brown, LLC Collection Account … M& T Bank, Buffalo, New York." There is also a letter from Steve Sidmans of Greenberg Traurig, one of Brown's entertainment attorneys.  

             M&T is the trustee for  Brown’s 1999 Bond debt to  the NY Teachers. The check is from a settlement following an audit of the royalties.

            Where was the money deposited?  David says in a local checking account. One he now shows us.

            Why?  David says they just did what Leon Friedman told them to do with the check.

            Leon is a distinguished professor at Hofstra Law School.  Over the years Leon has represented  James Brown in some of his most important and complex cases. Leon also writes books about the Supreme Court justices and their decisions.

             Buddy and David say Leon can't be reached.  He is in Italy with Justice Scalia. I suggest we try calling Leon  anyway-- just in case.  We do.  Leon answers.  The conversation goes like this:

             DAVID:  Leon, I thought you were in Italy.  With Justice Scalia.

             LEON:   No.  I’m leaving tomorrow. And it’s Justice Ginsburg this year.

             DAVID:  Leon, the special administrators are here with us today. (Courtesies    exchanged).   They want to know about the directions you gave us for the Universal audit check that came in last summer.

             LEON:  I didn’t give any directions about that check.

            David’s first card had fallen.  But for the help of the Attorney General – and later  the AG’s appointee Russell Bauknight -- David's whole deck would have swiftly collapsed.  And maybe the  $12+ million missing from funds Brown gave to the “I Feel Good” Foundation would have been recovered. 

 

           It didn't happen. 

On July 27 Bob and I – cautious, as always – moved for the removal of “one or more” trustees.  The motion was based on a "serious breach of trust"  -- $900,000 unaccounted for.   A James Brown hearing before Judge Early was already set for August 10.

 
            Buddy, David and Al secretly scampered to sign documents for David to resign; attorney Bill Hammond to replace him as trustee; and a transfer of Brown's 2000 Trust to Georgia before the August 10 hearing. Nothing worked.

            Then by August 3 David would become the sole culprit. Al and Buddy filed affidavits saying  they knew  nothing  about the $900,000.   

            On  August 10 David resigned and returned $350,000 of the $900,000. This was the amount that had cleared the bank after Brown's death.  In an order consented to by Buddy, David and Al, Judge Early accepted David's resignation.  All of the attorneys and accountants who had worked closely with David were terminated.  All "Brown Historical Documents"  -- including the files of terminated attorneys -- were to be placed in a central location.  They could be reviewed by anyone interested in the James Brown matters.

            The Brown Historical Documents were more than 80 boxes. By default, they were directed to be placed in the large, open area behind the office I rented from my son.  1218 Taylor Street, Columbia. But Buddy and Al, the remaining fiduciaries, retained control over them -- subject to access by all. 

            The August 10 order changed the official address of the 2000 Trust and estate from David's office to Bob's Aiken address.

 

My wonderful staff and I did not realize at the time that we had been given ringside seats to the  post-death James Brown Revue.  The show alternated between drama and slapstick. Then turned into a  tragedy.

Next Post:  # 8   AUGUST: RICHLAND COUNTY

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# 6. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S MONEY

       On September 24, 2007 Sr. Assistant Attorney General Sonny Jones says he appeared in the James Brown case “on a white horse.”  It was quite a high one.

       Sonny came  to save the “I Feel Good” Trust.   From Bob and me.

       At the invitation of David Cannon and Buddy Dallas. 

       There was not even a challenge to James Brown’s Will or Trust at the time.

       Three months later contests were filed. Eight months after that -- on August 10, 2008 -- Attorney General Henry McMaster would claim the right to control the James Brown litigation.  And  give away half of Brown’s “I Feel Good” Foundation for needy students.

        Everyone would start calling Brown’s assets  the “Attorney General’s money.”

        It was the summer of 2007 when things started to move quickly.

       On June 22 an order of Judge Early gave Bob and me access to the books.

       On June 26 I went alone to Barnwell to see records.  David refused.  He said he didn’t care what the Court order said, I couldn’t see the trust records until Bill Hammond approved.  I left.  Buddy called me as I was driving out of the small town.  Asked me to return.

       David apologized.  Said he needed a vacation.  Said he hadn’t had time to grieve
the death of his friend. He asked me to come back after the 4th of July.  I said ok.

       Returning home, I went by Bob’s office in Aiken.  I told him we both needed to
be there for the next visit.  And it should be soon.

       We tried to schedule for July 6.  David was busy. After several attempts, the  visit was set for  July 17th.

       On July 10 Powell Goldstein sent Buddy and David documents to transfer the 2000 Trust out of South Carolina.  To Georgia.  [The documents failed to comply with statutory notice provisions.]

       On July 17 Bob and I went to Barnwell.  It was a near-repeat of the March meeting. David was fuming again.  But his lawyer was making him comply with the Order.  Slowly.

       David wouldn’t let us go to the file room, even though the Order said our access to the records was to be the same as the that of the Trustees.  He kept handing us checkbooks or files. One at a time.  It was tiring.

    By early afternoon we needed a break.

    Then we found the $900,000 check.

Next Post: David Cannon resigns.  The Eighty Boxes. 






























 

# 5. FORLANDO: The Meeting at Uncle Darren’s House; the Levenson/Bell Wars

      This week I attended yet another hearing in S.C. Federal District Court Case 3:08-cv-00014-WOB, known in the James Brown world as the “Forlando Federal Case.”
 
      Forlando reminds me of my own son – before he became a Marine. Tall. Handsome. Charming. Brighter than some of his cousins with advanced degrees. Occasional outbursts of righteous indignation.

       I kept hoping Forlando would save the “I Feel Good” Trust. It didn’t happen.

      On January 2, 2008, at  21, Forlando made a triumphal entry into federal court.  He asked the Court to enjoin Brown’s Trust until David Cannon and Buddy Dallas were reinstated as trustees. [ Forlando tried to leave quietly in 2012.  And  erase what had happened.] 

        Forlando was flanked by a prestigious legal team which included three or four Powell Goldstein lawyers; a former S. C. Chief Justice and his son; and David Bell.

      And someone important had Forlando’s back – Henry McMaster, the Attorney General of South Carolina. In late 2007 Senior Assistant AG “Sonny” Jones had entered the James Brown Aiken case. Sonny would later tell the S.C. Supreme Court the AG came in “on a white horse.” Well, maybe.

    Invited by Buddy and David, Sonny arrived just as Bob and I had uncovered $7 million of the $12 million David Cannon was later charged with taking.   On October 28, 2007, David emailed a friend:

      "...the tide seems to be turning.  I went to the Attorneys General of SC and Ga and they have entered the proceedings.  The Judge and other attorneys have been quite [sic].

I have told my story to both and hopefully we can get this THING over with." 
 
    Forlando’s complaint said  he was an impoverished student; learning to be a good citizen; trying to carry out the wishes of his famous grandfather. He said Bob and I would not pay education funds from his $285,000 trust. He claimed we were trying to help Brown’s girlfriend Tommie Rae Hynie. And the clients of Forlando’s  former lawyer, Louis Levenson.  He said the Trust should be run by David and Buddy.

    What he didn’t tell the federal court was that he had just been given 39% of TJBL, the entity trying to buy Brown’s music empire.  In a year, with only charm as capital, Forlando was up from a promise of $10 million and a Porsche Boxter to1/3+ of a worldwide music empire.

    Meanwhile Louis and David Bell were at war. Bell claimed Forlando’s  signature was forged on the Levenson contract. Forlando had not been a client. This conflicted with Forlando’s own report of the early 2007 meeting at the snazzy Atlanta home of Uncle Darren and Aunt Yamma Lumar. With Louis, the Reverend Al Sharpton and others present, Forlando said the plan for Louis to help the “family” dismember the “I Feel Good” Foundation was made.

Next Post: “The Attorney General’s Money”

#4 March 26, 2007: Red-Faced and Banging on the Table

The back story given by Brown’s grandson Forlando when he sued Bob and me in 2008 helps explain how David Cannon acted at our first meeting.

Forlando said he and others hired Louis Levenson just after Brown died. They agreed to pay Louis $150,000 plus a 30% contingency fee to get them the music empire Brown had given the “I Feel Good” Trust.

Forlando says the family promised him $10 million and a Porsche Boxter to overlook the destruction of the $285,000 Education Trust his grandfather gave him.

Forlando said Louis tried to make a deal with the Cannon Group. When that failed, Louis moved to Plan B – to get the assets by court action without running afoul of Brown’s In Terrorem clause. I was part of that plan.

According to Forlando, when Louis told  his clients Judge Early had appointed me SA, they cheered.  I was a “bull dog” who would get rid of the Cannon Group. Being their bulldog, I would then roll over. They would get the music empire.

Having just fired Louis, Forlando had apparently shared his theory with David and Buddy before we met.

I will never forget March 26, 2007.

Aiken.  Offices of Hull, Towell.  Clean conference table. None of the documents we had asked to see.

David, Al Bradley, Buddy.  A covey of their lawyers.  Bob. Me.

David was red-faced.  Angry.  Fists to the table.  He accused me of being a spy. I said we were just doing the job the Court had asked us to do.

Never having seen David before, I thought he might have a heart attack. Or explode. 

Bill Hammond, their  tax lawyer -- probably a distant-but-unknown cousin --reigned while David fumed.

Bill said there was nothing much in Brown’s estate.  All in the 2000 Trust. There was no need for us to see tax returns. They were wrong.  Bill would have them corrected. The TIAA deal from 1999 was complex.  Bill would figure it out and report to us.

Over the next few months Bob and I would come to understand why the Cannon Group did not share well.  They couldn’t account for about $17 million of the $80 million that had passed through David’s hands since the 1999 TIAA deal. 

I started to believe that David was the biggest threat to the “I Feel Good” Trust.

I was wrong. It was the Attorney General – working with David and Buddy. And  with Brown’s bright, 21-year-old grandson, Forlando.

Post #5: Forlando; the Meeting at Uncle Darren’s House; the Levenson/Bell Wars