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Cher sues financial firm over bad investments

By | Published on Thursday 9 June 2016

Cher

Cher is suing a financial management firm who, the singer alleges, defrauded her out of $800,000 by pumping her money into “risky and unsound” investments, and other “malicious and fraudulent” behaviour.

According to the Associated Press, the Veritas Trust, of which Cher is the sole trustee, sued Sail Venture Partners and related firms yesterday. The lawsuit says that, in 2006 and 2007, the business manager of Veritas – Warren Grant – persuaded Cher to invest about $1.3 million into both Sail Venture Partners and Sail Sage Water Partners, with the singer becoming a ‘limited partner’ in the investment vehicles.

But, the lawsuit alleges, the Sail businesses routinely misrepresented the performance of the companies in which they had invested, while assuring that their own interests were protected. Says the lawsuit, according to The Hollywood Reporter: “Defendants routinely leveraged their insider positions with the portfolio companies to placate limited partners with news of supposed ‘exit strategies,’ impending ‘initial public offerings,’ and the potential for ‘enormous’ profits”.

It goes on: “Unbeknown to Veritas, defendants secured its capital and that of several other limited partners under duress at the eleventh hour … these bizarre and improper management tactics were a harbinger of worse to come”. Of the ten companies the funds invested in, three are already bankrupt and the others are not likely to produce a return, says the lawsuit, yet “defendants continued to collect management fees and lull the limited partners with false, rosy representations in violation of the partnership agreements”.

The defendants are yet to respond.



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