Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Kelley Lynch Email To Piet Levy/Journal Sentinel Re. Leonard Cohen and Sylvie Simmons



From: Kelley Lynch <kelley.lynch.2010@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 2:58 PM
Subject:
To: "plevy@journalsentinel.com" <plevy@journalsentinel.com>, Dennis <Dennis@riordan-horgan.com>, "*irs. commissioner" <*IRS.Commissioner@irs.gov>, Washington Field <washington.field@ic.fbi.gov>, ASKDOJ <ASKDOJ@usdoj.gov>, "Kelly.Sopko" <Kelly.Sopko@tigta.treas.gov>, "Doug.Davis" <Doug.Davis@ftb.ca.gov>


Piet Levy,

I would appreciate it if you would stop slandering me.  I misappropriated nothing from Leonard Cohen.  He, on the other hand, has withheld commissions he owes me and stolen millions in intellectual property I own. That would be 15% of all his intellectual  property.  I have the corporate books, records, etc. to prove this.  I reported Leonard Cohen's tax fraud to the IRS.  There was no informant.  Leonard Cohen likes carefully crafted comments that tantalize journalists.  He obtained a default judgment in a matter I wasn't served.  I ended up homeless.  Sylvie Simmons decided to advance this story and, while able to interview over a 100 people, didn't bother contacting me.  I was Cohen's personal manager.  Leonard Cohen's criminal tax fraud caught up with him.  Yes, I was arrested.  Evidently, Leonard Cohen and a lying prosecutor decided I had an intent to annoy Leonard Cohen?  Lying about Phil Spector annoys Leonard Cohen.  That was a major issue at my trial.  His good rock and roll comments about Phil Spector.  He now has three different versions of his Phil Spector gun story before LA Superior Court.  He testified at my trial that Phil held a gun to his head; the prosecutor (who was just insanely delighted to meet a celebrity) concealed an email that he wrote her about Phil holding the gun to his neck; and, the prosecutors in Phil Spector's matter used a version where Phillip held a gun to Cohen's chest.  Two are obviously perjured.  

LAPD told me Leonard Cohen didn't feel comfortable with my requests for tax information.  Try to get your facts straight and don't believe everything a lying fraud with motive has to say when he knows I reported his criminal tax fraud to the IRS.  Canada's National Treasure cannot live in Canada.  He has tax and residence issues there also.  Leonard Cohen feels comfortable perjuring himself in any court of law he sees fit.  His greed got the best of him.  He and Kory then concocted some insane story about my receiving overpayments on my commissions.  That's a bald-faced lie.  They concealed the corporate books, records, and other evidence from the court.  Cohen lied.  He said he is the sole owner of these entities.  He is not.  I have provided the IRS with ample evidence to prosecute Leonard Cohen.  His lawyers, including Robert Kory, should be prosecuted as well.  They also use people - like some insane lawyer in the Bay Area (Stephen Gianelli) - to target me, lie about me, and intimidate my family members, etc.  This is one hell of a folksinger.  

Check out my blog if you're interested in the truth.  Cohen, the sage, threatened this journalist over the article she wrote for Rolling Stone.  That's why he flew into Boulder from Europe to say he feared for his safety.  He fears the truth will get out.  


I've heard the so-called informant is now stripping and doing drugs in Vegas.  It's an entirely concocted story.  I had a woman work for me for one week and she evidently heard I was going to the IRS about Cohen.  He understood this.  The man was hysterical.  Every word at my trial is a lie.  A proveable lie.  Including with respect to the IRS.  

It's interesting that Simmons can write about his drug use.  When I mentioned it, he testified that I attempted to assail his reputation.

I worked for Phil Spector and am a very dear friend of his.  I've copied his lawyer in on this and do hope Phillip is able to nail Cohen in his perjury.  The Los Angeles DA apparently has motive to keep Cohen credible.  After al, his statements - according to Mick Brown/UK Telegraph - were presented to Phillip's Grand Jury and used in prosecution motions.  I guess that's why the DA's investigator was hanging out and lunching with Cohen during my intent to annoy Cohen trial.  The prosecutor lied - I don't have the tax information I need and Cohen issued me illegal K-1s on a company I am not a partner in. 

The story sounds nice but Cohen planned to tour.  I should know.  I was his personal manager.

Kelley Lynch 

By Piet Levy of the Journal Sentinel
March 13, 2013 4:13 p.m.
Leonard Cohen graced the Chicago Theatre stage sharply dressed in a suit and fedora hat. As his gruff, commanding voice quietly filled the room, the audience fell to a hush. It was as though they were bearing witness to a life-altering sermon, enraptured by profound songs like "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah," backed by a nine-piece band.
Four years after that concert, Cohen continues to surprise. He's older of course, at 78, but these days his performances often are, incredibly enough, even longer, between 3 1/2 and four hours. And he's taken his tour to so many places, he's starting to hit some unexpected markets, such as Milwaukee. On Friday, Cohen will perform at the Milwaukee Theatre, his first concert here since he played at what's now the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 25, 1975. Mayor Tom Barrett has designated Friday as "Leonard Cohen Day."
"Why Milwaukee happened is because one guy, he flew the flag," said Elliott Lefko, vice president of talent for Goldenvoice and AEG Live Canada, which is promoting Cohen's tour. The one guy he's referring to is Peter Jest, a local concert promoter and owner of Milwaukee music venue Shank Hall.
"He kept emailing the manager for three years and was really, really enthusiastic and passionate," Lefko said of Jest. "I thought, if he's so passionate . . . that's the kind of person we want to be in business with." Jest helped book Cohen for the Milwaukee Theatre and is going in with AEG as a promoter for the local date.
"As a promoter, I'm working with the same people year after year every two years, so to bring in a legend who hasn't been here in 38 years is really special," Jest said. " It's the most exciting thing I've done in 30 years."

An ongoing struggle

Born in 1934 in Montreal, Cohen began his artistic career as a writer and poet before recording his debut album "Songs of Leonard Cohen" in 1967 when he was in his 30s. He had a substantial audience in Europe, but it wasn't until 1988's "I'm Your Man" that Cohen found a following in the United States beyond a cult of admirers, said music journalist Sylvie Simmons, who wrote the authorized biography "I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen," released by HarperCollins imprint Ecco last fall.
"Even though he was blessed with so many things - power, good family support - he was also cursed with this depression . . . waking up every morning wondering how he was going to get through the day, what combination of women, song and drugs would help him get through it," Simmons said.
He also struggled with commitment - to women and to the music business.
"I had a conversation with the actress Rebecca de Mornay, his fiancée in the '90s (they broke up before getting married), and she articulated that Leonard, he never really connected to a romantic relationship," Simmons said. "He was always restless, and it made him want to keep moving, and he never committed wholeheartedly to the music business, either. In his earlier years, he had this feeling that somehow going on the road . . . playing the same old songs night after night, the songs would lose their intimacy."
In 1994, Cohen began a five-year period of seclusion at the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, where he was ordained a Buddhist monk. After leaving, he studied Hinduism in India, and entered his 70s a happy man, Simmons said.
But in 2004, Cohen's daughter Lorca got a tip that Kelley Lynch, Cohen's close friend and business manager, had allegedly stolen almost all of Cohen's money behind his back.
"He was extremely stoic," said Robert Kory, a Milwaukee native who served as Cohen's attorney beginning in 2004 and went on to become his manager. "It was rather devastating for him at that stage in his career to realize that he was broke." (Cohen won a civil suit in 2006 for $9 million, but compensation has stalled. Lynch was sentenced last year to 18 months in prison and five months' probation for repeatedly contacting Cohen in violation of a protective order.)

Returning to the road

In 2007, Kory and Cohen were weighing the singer's financial options and discussed the possibility of Cohen touring for the first time in about 15 years.
"I was able to ask him about what he liked about touring and what he hated about touring," Kory said. "He said, 'I like performing, and everything else is a terrible burden.' So I said, 'Let's try to work on that.' "
One thing Cohen didn't want to do was interviews on the road (hence, a request by the Journal Sentinel was declined). "He does 3 1/2 , four-hour shows and works an hour and a half before every show at sound check," Kory said. "He delivers completely for the audience, so it's very draining to meet people before or after the show and do interviews."
Another pet peeve was dissatisfaction with the sound at his concerts in the past.
"He wanted to make sure that the audience could hear every note, every word, and today with current technology, we can do that," Kory said. Most of the shows' production budget goes toward sound equipment. The tour employs seven sound technicians, three backing vocalists and six to seven backing musicians who collectively play 60 instruments during the shows, Kory said.
Rafael Gayol, Cohen's touring drummer (he also played with the BoDeans from 1989 to 1992) said the band spent 11 weeks in 2008 rehearsing for those first club shows in Canada.
"We're the quietest 10-piece band on Earth," Gayol said, an aesthetic designed to draw people in to the music and Cohen's signature lyrics. "The stage (microphones are) so hot so the audience can hear everything.
"Leonard sings quietly a lot of the time," Gayol continued. "I had to learn really quick and think on my feet about how the drums were going to be relative to the arrangements without getting in anyone's way, especially Leonard's."

Overwhelming reception

When Cohen returned to performing, "this tsunami of love and respect that greeted him, he wasn't expecting that," author Simmons said. "He was getting these audiences with tears in their eyes, and this silence in the room where you can hear a pin drop."
The comfortable touring conditions, the meticulous care toward the sound, the strength of the songs - all of these elements are factors for the high quality of his performances. Kory speculates, too, that Cohen's time in that monastery helped with his stamina and gravitas.
"He has had many years of spiritual practice and has a certain Zen training that's almost military in nature," he said.
And even though Cohen got back into touring for financial reasons, he's not the kind of man to phone it in. "Hallelujah," for instance, was reportedly a labor of love for five to six years.
"His son Adam had told him as Leonard told me, you can get away with an hour and a half (show)," Simmons said. "But he wants the shows to be perfect. It's the same perfectionism he's had his whole life. They're wonderful pieces of theater, almost intimate experiences despite the vastness of the venues."
And today Cohen, a man Simmons suggests had always struggled with commitment, has finally found his calling.
"He made his money back a long time ago. He's doing (these tours) because he loves the life," Simmons said. "He said to me partly it was because of this wonderful feeling for someone his age to have full employment. . . . If he wasn't on the road, he would sit at home worrying about work, looking at the TV."
"With every concert, he's not sure if he will be passing this way again. He's aware of the fact that he's getting older," Simmons said.
"This gives him a kind of focus, knowing that he has a limited amount of time left on this planet."



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