From: Kelley Lynch <kelley.lynch.2010@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 12:50 PM
Subject:
To: IRS cc: Multiple Parties
Hello IRS,
I would like you to read the attached article. The following excerpts are taken from that. This was a 1993 Leonard Cohen interview with Goldmine. Please keep in mind that Leonard Cohen is not your run-of-the-mill uneducated artist. He has been very clear, with the newsmedia and various biographers, that he has a background in business, law, and commerce. Furthermore, he is used to complex stock sales and was involved with one when he, Marty Machat, and Bob Johnston evidently bought out his first managers. The three songs he accused those managers of stealing from him were not part of that transaction. I personally helped negotiate the buy-back of those three songs and there was no evidence, or allegation from Cohen, that they were stolen from him.
After Marty Machat's death, Cohen (who flew in personally, took the documents he chose to from his office, had his lawyer write that his files should be released, and met with Marty and his family friend and lawyer, Herschel Weinberg) worked with Weinberg to unravel his off-shore accounts with Loyens & Volkmaars; advise Sony that his recording contract was inadvertently assigned to some Nevada entity; abandoned his green card; obtained a new one; formed new corporate entities; registered at least one in California - using a different name etc. I had NOTHING whatsoever to do with any of this.
I can assure you that this is not the alleged Wesley Snipes/IRS scenario. Furthermore, Leonard Cohen moved to this country; appears to have defrauded U.S. taxpayers; and has tax and residence problems in Canada which I discussed with Canada Revenue who took a complaint. He told me he could not live in Canada for those reasons and he and Herschel Weinberg decided to re-obtain a new green card, almost immediately after abandoning the old one, because IRS doesn't ask where you filed the prior year while Canada does. Is that true? I have no idea. That's what this individual told me.
This man, as Steven Machat noted, created his own hell. He has also stolen from both of us.
All the best,
Kelley
Kelley
Cohen turned in 1992 to his next album, originally titled Be For Real, but released by Columbia on November 24 under the title The Future. For once, his American record company, now run by Don Ienner, seemed to be behind him, though Cohen had been through so many record executives by this time, it was hard to believe.
"[Ienner] said, 'Leonard, you know, we love you more than some groups that sell five million copies,'" he recalls. "I said, 'Please love me less, and sell five million copies.' He set himself up for that one. But he said, 'Your integrity and your artistry is something we cherish very highly.' I said, 'Look, I got that part covered. Just treat me like a commodity. That's what I'm interested in. Whether the stuff is any good or great or not, I wrestle over that material all the time. That's not what I'm here for.'
"I was representing myself at this point. [Cohen took over his own affairs after the death of his lawyer.] That was very refreshing and made them rather uneasy because usually the artists don't come in and negotiate the contract. I started undertaking that function. I found it very invigorating and refreshing. I'll never let a lawyer do that for me again. This is one of the bonuses of the whole enterprise, to actually sit with the guys and talk about how much you're worth."
