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By Chris Cooke | Revealed on Tuesday 29 November 2022
Warner Music is going through an explosive lawsuit in relation to allegations of sexual assault being made towards the late document business veteran and Atlantic Data co-founder Ahmet Ertegun. His accuser is utilising a brand new regulation in New York that enables alleged victims of sexual assault whose claims had been beforehand barred by the statute of limitations to file new authorized proceedings.
Within the lawsuit, artist supervisor Jan Roeg alleges that Ertegun sexually abused and assaulted her a number of occasions, over a few years from the early Nineteen Eighties onwards, whereas she was working together with his label – each as a expertise scout and a supervisor with artists signed to the Warner-owned document firm.
The primary two alleged assaults occurred in 1983, first in Ertegun’s workplace, after which at his New York residence following a dinner attended by varied music business execs. “Days after this second assault”, the lawsuit claims, “Mr Ertegun made it clear to Ms Roeg that she needed to ‘get to know’ him with the intention to keep her place (and that of her artists) at Atlantic”.
“That’s”, it provides, “ladies who wished to do enterprise with Atlantic needed to play together with Mr Ertegun’s sexual wishes, and couldn’t rock the boat with a grievance or lawsuit. And Mr Ertegun now held the destiny of Ms Roeg’s artists, together with the primary one who was signed by the label, in addition to her personal profession, in his fingers”.
“Mr Ertegun’s abusive sexual conduct continued for years and even many years”, Roeg’s authorized submitting says, including: “Ms Roeg often needed to flee or storm out of Mr Ertegun’s workplace on account of his misconduct, and the raveled state of assorted different ladies who left his workplace over time additionally made it apparent that he was partaking in inappropriate sexual exercise on Atlantic’s premises”.
The lawsuit targets each Ertegun’s property and Warner’s Atlantic Data Group. The latter is included as a defendant as a result of, Roeg claims, administration on the label within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties had been absolutely conscious of Ertegun’s conduct, however turned a blind eye to it.
“Atlantic’s administration knew about Mr Ertegun’s conduct, and his obsessive sexual pursuit of Ms Roeg”, the lawsuit goes on, “which was characterised by volcanic eruptions of anger within the workplace [and] was apparent to all on the label”.
“Atlantic’s prime executives and different administration had ample alternatives to watch Mr Ertegun’s drunken, abusive conduct and hateful angle in direction of ladies”, it continues, “together with in firm conferences during which he would overtly brag about and recount intimately sexually exploitative escapades he engaged in backstage at concert events and the like”.
It additionally alleges that “Atlantic is understood to have frequently paid cash to ladies accusing Mr Ertegun of sexual misconduct, each earlier than and after his abuse of Ms Roeg had begun”.
“Atlantic, nevertheless, didn’t act to guard Ms Roeg or its different feminine staff, enterprise companions, and different ladies who crossed paths with Mr Ertegun in the midst of doing enterprise with the label”, it provides, “whether or not by reining in and disciplining Mr Ertegun himself, or putting in coaching or different measures to forestall or impose penalties for misconduct similar to sexual assaults and harassment”.
Noting that the lawsuit has been filed in response to the brand new Grownup Survivors Act going into pressure in New York state, the authorized submitting concludes: “Mr Ertegun died in 2006, and his property’s trusts and property are managed by the trustees named on this motion. Now, Mr Ertegun, by way of his property and its trustees, and Atlantic Data, may be held accountable, as society higher understands the trauma of sexual assault and abuse, and claims for such misconduct have been re-established underneath the New York Grownup Survivors Act”.
Responding to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Warner Music instructed the LA Instances: “These allegations date again almost 40 years, to earlier than WMG was a standalone firm. We’re talking with individuals who had been there on the time, taking into account that many key people are deceased or into their 80s and 90s”.
Whereas not commenting on any of the particular allegations towards Ertegun, the spokesperson was however eager to emphasize that the company tradition of the fashionable music enterprise could be very completely different to that of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties.
They added: “To make sure a protected, equitable, and inclusive working setting, we have now a complete code of conduct, and obligatory office coaching, to which all of our staff should adhere. We frequently consider how we are able to evolve our insurance policies to make sure our work setting is free from discrimination and harassment”.
