Argentinean Promoter Sues Yankee

The filing brings forth a number of charges including breach of contract, unjust enrichment, defamation, injurious falsehood, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy to defame.

Five Live Entertainment’s Diego Hernan De Iraola contends he paid Yankee nearly $800,000 to secure the rights to six concerts in Argentina in November 2010. All seemed to be going well as Yankee’s team even inked a deal with De Iraola to expand the tour to include four additional dates.

However, “just days before the first of the scheduled concerts, and after plaintiff Five Live incurred more than a million dollars of expenses in promoting and producing these concerts, Daddy Yankee abruptly and without cause unilaterally canceled the entire tour,” the suit says.

Yankee, his agency Icaro Booking Services and his record label “wrongfully and publicly blamed” De Iraola for the cancellation in a “smear campaign” and harmed the promoter’s business, alleging “Five Live had failed to pay 40 percent of the contract,” the suit states.

Five Live also claims Yankee “wrongfully retained the entirety of the funds paid to him,” and failed to reimburse or compensate Five Live “for the injuries suffered as a result of the breach.”

The timing of Five Live’s final payment appears to be a point of contention in the case, as Icaro Booking allegedly made several threats to cancel the entire tour unless a remaining $480,000 for the four new shows was received in the leadup to the tour.

But De Iraola, who’d already shelled out $820,000 for the original six dates, insisted he would “pay the price for the additional shows by wire to Icaro’s account upon arrival of Daddy Yankee and his crew to Argentina,” the suit says.

The promoter claims his business and health declined following the cancellation, as former partners have “chosen to avoid Five Live and De Iraola altogether” and he’s experienced panic attacks and “high blood pressure due to stress … nosebleeds, bleeding in his eyes and numbness in his limbs.”

The suit is seeking reimbursement of Five Live’s $820,000, compensatory and punitive damages and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.