Death Row Sues Accounting Firm

Death Row Records has sued Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, accusing the powerful Los Angeles accounting firm of fraud and embezzlement.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that the accounting firm and one of its ex-partners, Steven Cantrock, diverted funds, failed to pay bills or file proper income returns for Death Row and its owner Marion “Suge” Knight.

The suit, which also names Gelfand parent Coopers & Lybrand as a defendant, alleges that the accounting firms were also negligent in providing financial statements and royalty invoices to the label.

Death Row attorney David Kenner has filed a separate suit alleging that Cantrock and the firms charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in unauthorized expenses on credit cards registered to Kenner and his wife.

Sources say Cantrock signed a document under duress last year admitting that he stole $4.5 million from Death Row. He was fired for misconduct by Gelfand in February, several months after he went into hiding and offered to cooperate with the federal government, which is conducting a racketeering probe of Death Row.