50 Cent Promoter Chased For 50 Grand

A U.S. agent’s suggestion that the fiasco over 50 Cent’s show in Estonia might deter acts from visiting the region has clearly miffed Helen Sildna of Baltic Development Group.

Jill Thacker of JBC Entertainment made the claim after she was left to foot the alleged $50,000 bill for the touring party’s flights when the local promoter ducked out of his obligation to pay, according to the Baltic Times.

Sildna resents the slur on the market and, while sympathizing with the agent’s predicament, said Thacker should have first made sure she was working with a reliable promoter.

"The fact that there is a young guy promoting his first big show and messing it up like this just makes any serious promoter completely frustrated here because – in the end – it can affect the entire business here," she told Pollstar, fed up that every promoter in the region could be tarred with the same brush.

BDG is the region’s major promoter for big international acts and often teams with Live Nation, through its Swedish EMA Telstar and Finnish WellDone offices, to co-promote the Baltic leg of major European tours.

Thacker was left to pick up the tabs for the flights despite the fact she’d received what appeared to be a bank confirmation that the covering funds had been sent by promoter Juri Zitin, according to local news reports.

"I don’t know what it’s like in that part of the world but sending a false wire transfer is bank fraud, which is a very serious offence," she told Baltic Times.

She was also said to be contacting the U.S. Department of Justice to "pursue this matter to the highest level," and has been in touch with the American Embassy in Tallinn to get advice on how to approach the relevant Estonian authorities.

The newspaper reports also suggest that JBC stepped in to deliver the 50 Cent show that Zitin already had on sale because the promoter – believed to be based in Latvia – had already fallen out with the German agent who sold him the act in the first place.

At press time it wasn’t possible to get comment from Thacker or Zitin, who promoted the show at the Tallinn Song Festival Ground under the name of Iniston Grupp OU.

Unconfirmed local reports suggest the structure of the deal may be a little more complicated – and maybe more people are involved – than the Baltic Times account of it.