Jay-Z’s Companies Sue NYC Licensing Company For Fraud

Jay-Z’s business entities have sued a New York City licensing firm, claiming it cheated the companies as part of a “colossal accounting scandal.”

In the lawsuit, Jay-Z’s companies accuse Iconix Brand Group Inc. of lying about its finances when it made deals with the rapper’s Roc Nation apparel company.

When Roc Nation entered into a brand partnership with Iconix in 2013, the defendant was fabricating their financial reports to falsely inflate its earnings, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in state court in Manhattan.

According to ABC News, the allegations arise “out of a massive years-long fraud perpetrated by Iconix and its affiliates to amass a portfolio of trademarks under false pretenses, in the process defrauding its licensees and partners, and setting off a colossal accounting scandal the depths of which are still being uncovered,” the suit said.

The scheme “sent its share price from a peak of more than $400 per share in 2014 to less than a dollar today,” the suit also claimed.

The lawsuit also claimed that Jay-Z’s companies “have incurred substantial legal expenses in connection with, among other things, the federal government’s investigations into Iconix’s massive fraud.”

Jay-Z was questioned behind closed doors last year about the fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time, his lawyers stated that they didn’t believe he had any relevant information to share with SEC investigators.

As the plaintiffs, Jay and his companies are seeking payment of legal fees and unspecified damages.