#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