Akon’s Ex Business Partner Devyne Stephens Taking Him To Court For 3rd Time, Says Singer Still Owes Him $4 Million

January 20, 2022 by Twila-Amoure in Music with 0 Comments

Akon

Akon’s Ex Business Partner Devyne Stephens Taking Him To Court For 3rd Time, Says Singer Still Owes Him $4 Million

Akon’s former business partner, Devyne Stephens, isn’t playing around when it comes to collecting the money the ‘Locked Up’ singer allegedly still owes him.

Devyne Stephens

According to reports, music executive Devyne Stephens is taking Akon to court for the 3rd time over an unpaid settlement agreement of nearly $4 million. Devyne Stephens is claiming he’s still owed $750,000 and at least $3 million in royalties from Akon, according to an amended complaint filed in the 2021 Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.

Akon

Stephens’ recent suit, which was reportedly filed on Jan. 18, claims that under the 2018 agreement, the multi-Grammy-nominated artist agreed to pay him $3.25 million over the course of four years, however, he has yet to pay the last installment of $750,000. In addition to that, the lawsuit adds that Akon purposely sabotaged his relationship with Atlantic Records in order to avoid a clause of their settlement that states he would pay Stephens royalties for 4 future albums while under a “major” label.

According to Stephens’ lawsuit, Akon believes he should no longer have to give Stephens his 20 percent cut of royalties because he’s now under BMG Records. However, Stephens is arguing that Akon should not be released from the previously agreed to royalty payments due to him allegedly breaching his contract with Atlantic on purpose and because BMG “by any objective metric, is a ‘major’ record label.”

The court documents add,

“Akon has spent the better part of a decade frustrating Stephens’ attempts to obtain large amounts of money which Akon unambiguously promised in contracts to pay Stephens.”

“Although Akon argues he is not currently signed to a ‘major’ record label, he is wrong.”