Bogus Rihanna Concerts Lawsuit

The lawsuit, filed by Unique Sports & Marketing/Ingresso Facil Sept. 16 in New York, accuses Vegas Style Entertainment of New Jersey and owner Vince Carroll, a “fictitious” version of Rihanna’s management called Rebel One Management and several other parties for breach of contract, fraud, aiding and abetting fraud, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment.

Also named as defendants are Neceo Raymond McEaddy, aka Ray Annis, NFA Entertainment, Adrienne L. Harris and Tony Camillo for their alleged participation.

Rihanna is not named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the elaborate hoax began in June when Annis and Camillo led the Brazilian company to solicit help from Carroll and Vegas Style Entertainment to book Rihanna for a series of concerts later set for Nov. 26-28.

The Brazilian promoter claims to have paid out $825,000 in fees and deposits to the alleged imposters as per the contract before discovering Unique Sports had been scammed. A journalist for Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo contacted agent Tony Goldring at William Morris Endeavor to confirm the Rihanna dates. Goldring wrote back no dice; Rihanna had no Brazilian dates on the books.

Unique Sports officials then double-checked with WME and the real Rebel One, confirmed there was no contract, and demanded its money back, according to the suit. The defendants allegedly tried to maintain the façade but did return about $390,000.

Unique Sports is seeking $4.68 million, which includes $435,000 in unreturned booking fees and deposits plus the loss of millions the company claims it could have made from the concerts, the suit says.