Gods, Gangsters & Honour by Steven Machat
Excerpts:
Leonard
was desperate to get rid of this two managers, Judy Berger and Mary
Martin, who he believed had stolen the rights to his songs and records
early on in his career. Even back then, Cohen was convinced that women
were ripping him off. He signed an agreement, and when he wanted to get
rid of the contract, he accused everyone of ripping him off. You could
say it became repeat behaviour. My father duly got rid of Berger and
Martin, set up a new company called Stranger Music for Cohen and agreed
to manage Leonard for 15% as well as 15% of Stranger. The idea of the
company was twofold: one, to maintain ownership of the copyrights duly
created; and two, to minimise Leonard’s exposure to American tax, just
like any other rich individual trying to minimise their tax liabilities.
I’ve
no problem with people trying to avoid tax, but as the years have
passed, I couldn’t help but smile at the apparent contradiction between
Leonard’s public persona and his private business arrangements. This
was a supposedly devout Buddhist with no interest in material
possessions, who was all the same happy to put his trust in business
managers and companies he created with his knowledge and consent whose
sole aim was to minimise tax liability.
Leonard then sold Stranger Music for a small fortune and I’ve seen nothing from Cohen.
Cohen
controlled his copyright, not my father. The irony was that Cohen had
total control over my father … Do you know what happened to the
$400,000 worth of bearer bonds in my father’s office? Bearer bonds are
just unregistered bonds or paper money that are used to conceal
ownership and, with it, tax liabilities. Cristini told me (who knows if
this is true?) that he had found the bonds in my father’s office hours
after he had died but the next day they disappeared.
Cohen
denied any knowledge of these bonds. I was unsure if they existed or
were part of my father’s schemes cooked up to conceal Leonard’s money.
Cohen
said: “Steven, you remember the 1988 tour? Flemming extorted $100,000
from me. He wanted 20% managerial commission, in addition to his
promoter’s fees. He thought he was doing extra work for me and wanted
me to pay him.”
Far from being the poet of the spirits, Leonard was a hustler using Buddhism as a facade.
The
next time I would see Leonard … We’d just seen The Hand That Rocks The
Cradle where Rebecca De Mornay plays the psychopathic nanny who stalks
this family. Who should walk along but Cohen, who was holding hands
with DeMornay, his girlfriend at the time. Cohen was extremely
uncomfortable because he knew he had stolen from me and it was clear he
couldn’t get away quick enough. Neither could my son, because he took
one look at DeMornay and ran. He was terrified because he thought she
was the nanny in the film!
It was clear that Leonard was also wary of me because, I guess, he thought I might be planning to sue him.
Leonard
told me that when he had gone off on his Buddhist retreat Kelley was
left managing his business interests. He said: “She started believing
this money was hers and she started spending it. All of it. When
I got back from my pilgrimage, I went to withdraw money left in the
account to cover the draft. I was speechless. I didn’t know where to
look, where to turn or what to think.”
Then
Leonard told me that Kelley had bought a multi-million dollar house in
Mandeville Canyon with his money … Leonard said: We didn’t even get the
house back. Kelley stopped paying the mortgage so the house got
repossessed and the mortgage company took everything in the house as
well.
Lynch
had been sending out long and bizarre emails to his friends,
journalists, and the authorities denouncing Leonard for a million and
one sins, which would have worried me if I was their target.
The
whole scheme was so ridiculous [Leonard Cohen’s attempts to limit his
liabilities on the deals] from the start. All Leonard had to do to
avoid U.S. taxes was tear up his green card, and stop living in and
using the U.S. as his base.
It’s
no secret that Leonard has also made a killing on the art market by
selling his paintings, plus his touring of the last two years … If
that’s true, it doesn’t really tally with the clear implication from
Cohen that he is a man who has been robbed of everything.
Leonard told me before I left that he had actually offered Kelley a settlement …
It’s
clear that Cohen and his lawyers want to heap the blame on Kelley’s
shoulders for more than just revenge. Because Cohen’s pension assets
were cashed in … ahead of schedule they are liable to tax so they need
to establish that this situation is her fault. The penalties could
actually be greater than the tax itself.
Leonard has cast himself into a hell of his own making.
