Skales and his manager, Osagie Osarenkhoe are currently embattled after they were accused of fraud by Baseline Music, Skales’ record label, which has been his home for the past two years.
The stories were first simple. They were made public from Osagie’s twitter, where she didn’t make her point clear, but she passed along a message.
Here are 7 things we learnt from the petition.
1. Skales signed a 5 year contract with Baseline Music.
“On the 11th of July, 2014 the company entered into an Artiste and Record Company Multiple Right Agreement (the “Contract”) between itself and Raoul Njeng Njeng (also known as Skales) for the provision by Skales of exclusive recording services to the Company for a period of 5 (five) years.”
2. The contract gave Baseline Music an entitlement of 70% of profit brought in by Skales.
“Under the terms of the Contract, Skales assigned to the company all copyright and other rights or interests throughout the world in all sound recordings made by Skales prior to or during the term of the Contract. The Contract further provided that the Company shall be entitled to 70% (seventy percent) of the gross receipts received by Skales from performance and tours and brand endorsements during the term of the Contract.”
3. Skales introduced Osagie to Baseline Music.
“Skales introduced Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe to the Company as his manager and stated her duties to include inter alia tour bookings, strategy and promotion. In order to avoid a situation where accounts will be disputed, the Company set in place a procedure for the remittance of monies received from performances, tours and brand endorsements involving Skales.”
“Skales introduced Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe to the Company as his manager and stated her duties to include inter alia tour bookings, strategy and promotion. In order to avoid a situation where accounts will be disputed, the Company set in place a procedure for the remittance of monies received from performances, tours and brand endorsements involving Skales.”
4. Skales earns 30% of the money he makes.
“The procedure implemented at the beginning of the Contract was the payment of all monies received in pursuance of performances and endorsements into the Baseline account, whereupon the 30% due to Skales would be transferred to his (Skales’) account after the deduction of expenses.”
“The above procedure was implemented at the beginning of the Contract and monies were remitted in the manner stated above. The Company however noticed that rather than remit monies to the Company account as agreed, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe falsely dictated to event promoters that monies were to be paid to her personal accounts.”
“In all the circumstances where monies were paid to Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe’s personal accounts, these monies were never repaid to the Company.”
5. Baseline Music claims Skales was in cahoot with Osagie.
“The Company noticed that although Skales was listed as performing at various concerts, shows, tours and other events, none of the monies received from these events was remitted to the Company.”
“In this regard, the Company invited Skales and his manager Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe to various meetings seeking an account and a reconciliation. At these meetings, both Skales and his manager Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe insisted that the events in question were not paid events and as such there were no monies to remit.”
6. The label claims the fraudulent act by Osagie went on for 12 months.
“These dubious activities continued for a period of 12 (twelve) months wherein the Company was fraudulently deprived of its legitimate earnings by the said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe as payments made for performances were paid directly into her account in violation of the procedure set up for payments at the beginning of the Contract.”
“The Company in March of 2016 decided to catalogue some of the paid shows, performances, concerts and tours wherein Skales performed and the monies were fraudulently converted for personal use by the said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe.”
“By the Company’s estimation, from the aforementioned events, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe has fraudulently converted the sum of N7,474,000 from this brief period without accounting to the Company or making payments first into the Company’s accounts as stipulated in the Contract. This is without factoring all the other performances, tours and shows where no remittance was made from the period January 2015 to April 2016.”
7. The record company set a trap for Osagie.
“In order to properly document this fraud and catch Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe in the act of theft, the Company created an email address, and sent an email to Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe requesting the performance of Skales at an event in California on the 2nd June, 2016.”
“In the email communication, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe requested the sum of $5,000 (five thousand US dollars) for the performance as well as one business class ticket, one economy class ticket and two hotel rooms in a 4-star hotel. (please find enclosed herewith the email communication between Skales and Femi George with respect to the said performance) On 18th May, 2016 the first tranche of $2,500 (two thousand five hundred US dollars) representing 50% (fifty percent) of the performance fee demanded by Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe was wired.”
8. Skales was paid N5,000,000 for his MTN Pulse brand ambassador role.
“The Company in 2015 entered into an agreement with Upfront and Personal, for the engagement of Skales to appear in TV commercials, billboards websites and other social media on behalf of MTN Pulse. As per the terms of the agreement, Upfront and Personal was to pay to the Company the sum of N5,000,000 (five million naira) in two tranches of N2,500,000 (two million five hundred thousand naira each).”
“The said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe representing that she was authorized by the Company obtained the sum of N5,000,000 (five million naira) due to the Company without being so authorized. Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe has failed after repeated demands to repay the said N5,000,000 (five million naira) fraudulently obtained.”
“Given the above circumstances, the Company believes that a fraud has been committed against it by Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe. The Company hereby appeals to your good office to investigate this matter in the interest of fairness and justice.”
Osagie was nestled in between
two police officers, who took her to their station. Her crime was not initially announced. What was made public was that the arrest had a lot to do with Skales and Baseline music. As the story spread like wildfire, a lot came in. Osagie’s arrest was headline news due to her popularity and standing in the music industry. Osagie was once the manager of Wizkid, and has a string of artistes on her roaster including Skales, GGB dancers, Ketchup and a lot of others. She also consults for a number of others, serving as A&R for many in the game. The arrest of such a figure doesn’t deserve a footnote, it’s headline league, baby!
Slowly the stories seeped in. A letter of the petition which enabled her arrest was released to the media, and it read of a lot of accusations. In between everything, here are the 7 core points of it
.
There are also new reports surfacing every minute. This morning, Music business veteran Wale Ewedemi, who also close links to Baseline Music revealed on his Instagram that Skales and his manager have been remanded in police custody, where they have admitted to fraud.
“Skales and His Manager Osagie have been remanded in Police Custody after confessing to various charges of fraud and diversion of Baseline Records funds”, Wale wrote.
“They are currently assisting the Police in unraveling the extent of the fraud. Running into tens of millions of naira.
“At the inception of the contract, he was given a fully furnished luxury apartment in Lekki in a gated estate, with a brand new customized SUV. And a multimillion Naira sign on Fee.
“The record label also gave him a free hand to select and run his brand, supported by a multimillion naira corporate expense account.
“Skales behavior has reduced the appetite of the Record label to assist other young talents to achieve their full potential.”
With no official response from Skales and his reps, the conversation on Twitter has raged with new sources sharing snapshots of Skales’ contract with Baseline Music. A most notable clause is the one of disengagement. According to the screenshot of the contract, Skales will have to pay Baseline Music the sum of £10 million pounds or N5 billion to exit the contract.
The media circus keeps going on, with everyone and anyone entering the field with new information. No one has been able to contact Skales nor his manager directly and in the absence of their comments, everything and anything is news.
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