Kanye West’s former business manager has claimed in court that he’s been unable to serve the rapper with court papers in a $4.5 million lawsuit, sparking rumours the rapper is missing.
Thomas St John, who is head of the TSJ international accounting firm and worked with the artist, is suing Mr West over alleged unpaid fees.
He has accused West of failing to pay 18 months’ worth of guaranteed fees, believed to be around $300,000 (£250,000) per month.
On December 19, a court filing obtained by The US Sun, shows that Thomas is seeking an extension of time to serve the lawsuit to the rapper and company, Yeezy LLC, over issues trying to locate him.
He also noted that attempts to mail the court documents to three of his Californian personal addresses in Hidden Hills, Malibu and Calabasas had failed.
Typically, plaintiffs have to show the court that they have properly notified the parties they are suing for the case to go ahead, and at times defendants have intentionally avoided being served the papers in order to hinder the lawsuit.
Mr John believes the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2018, does not have an attorney in the case, explaining why he has had difficulty contacting his lawyers.
The court filing stated: “We were advised about a new law firm for defendants, but not a specific point of contact. We subsequently learned of information in the news that the law firm identified as new counsel was not affiliated with the defendants.
“Accordingly, we have not been able to serve defendants through their counsel. As a general matter, we have had difficulty confirming the best current address of Kanye West.
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“For Mr West, despite our diligent efforts, we were unable to ascertain his current residential address, and therefore, have not yet made attempts to serve him personally. Instead, we have attempted to service him by mail at multiple possible addresses.”
West was seen in the days before Thomas filed the lawsuit but the difficulty of locating the rapper since has sparked rumours and speculation online.
It comes after a tweet from Daily Loud went viral, which claimed the 45-year-old artist was missing.
It said: “Kanye West has reportedly been missing and unable to find for weeks according to his ex-business manager.”
The artist’s former business manager claimed that Kanye grew “heated and aggressive” when he confronted him about the fees he is allegedly owed.
The lawsuit states: “He screamed at Mr St John and made clear he no longer wanted to work with (St John).
“When confronted by the 18-month commitment that had just been made, Mr West stated words to the effect of ‘The 18-month term was bulls***’ and ‘You’re insane for even thinking I would stick to it.'”
Mr John said West paid for the first three months of service out of the 18-month contract, leaving an unpaid balance of $900,000 as of October.
He will allegedly owe an additional $3.6 million by November 2023, when the contract was set to expire.
