wolfblitzzer0: Leonard Cohen stock fraud ? Agile was.
wolfblitzzer0.blogspot.com/2013/11/leonard-cohen-stock-fraud.html
Nov 9, 2013 - Its principal, Neal Greenberg, has been a prominent Boulder resident, and an industry .... Inc. or Traditional Holdings, LLC was held in trust for Cohen. ... 2004, Richard Westin wrote Leonard Cohen and Kelley Lynch a letter.
NATURAL WEALTH REAL ESTATE, INC., a/k/a Greenberg Associates, Inc., d/b/a Agile Advisors, Inc. a Colorado corporation; TACTICAL ALLOCATION SERVICES, LLC, d/b/a Agile Allocation Services, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company; AGILE GROUP, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company; GREENBERG ASSOCIATES SECURITIES, INC., d/b/a Agile Group, a Colorado corporation; and NEAL R. GREENBERG, a Colorado resident, Plaintiffs and Counterclaim Defendants, v. LEONARD COHEN, a Canadian citizen residing in California; KELLEY LYNCH, a United States citizen residing in California; and JOHN DOE, Numbers 1-25, Defendants, and, LEONARD COHEN, a Canadian citizen residing in California, Counterclaim Plaintiff, v. TIMOTHY BARNETT, a Colorado citizen, Counterclaim Defendant.
Civil Case No. 05-cv-01233-LTB.
United States District Court, D. Colorado.
This is probably my favorite Leonhard Cohen song and poetry.'Halaleuya' or however you spell it is pure Zionist shit and perhaps inducing poor Jeff Buckley to sinmg such crap when he could have sang anymore number of his father Tim Buckley's beautiful and brilliant non Zionist and anti fundamentalist Christian songs-poetry such as Pleasant Street for instance,is perhaps what drove him to suicide or drowning.
Boulder adviser Greenberg charged with fraud over $174 ...
www.denverpost.com/ci_16016367
The Denver PostSep 8, 2010 - ... charged Boulder investment adviser Neal Greenberg with fraud and ... The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that it ...
Neal Greenberg (@traderneal) | Twitter
https://twitter.com/traderneal
The latest Tweets from Neal Greenberg (@traderneal). ... If Palestinians were just innocent victims of Israel, they wouldn't go into a synagogue and slaughter ...
This is probably my favorite Leonhard Cohen song and poetry.'Halaleuya' or however you spell it is pure Zionist shit and perhaps inducing poor Jeff Buckley to sinmg such crap when he could have sang anymore number of his father Tim Buckley's beautiful and brilliant non Zionist and anti fundamentalist Christian songs-poetry such as Pleasant Street for instance,is perhaps what drove him to suicide or drowning.
Jeff Buckley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Buckley
Traducir esta páginaHis biological father, Tim Buckley, was a singer-songwriter who released a series of .... based on a 15th-century hymn; and "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, based on .... That same evening, Buckley went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a slack ... or alcohol in his system and the death was ruled as an accidental drowning.
Leonard Cohen - Stories of the street - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLDHaGya-f8
Tim Buckley - Pleasant Street - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm_t-EaZO3EDec 28, 2012 - Uploaded by Leonard WintersTim Buckley - Pleasant Street, Goodbye and Hello (1967) Lyrics: You don't remember what to say You don't ...
Tim Buckley - Pleasant Street, Goodbye and Hello (1967)
Lyrics:
You don't remember what to say
You don't remember what to do
You don't remember where to go
You don't remember what to choose
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
The sunshine reminds you of concreted skies
You thought you were flying but you opened your eyes
And you found yourself falling back to yesterday's lies
Hello, Pleasant Street, you know she's back again
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
At twilight your lover comes to your room
He'll spin you, he'll weave you 'round his emerald loom
And softly you'll whisper all around his ear
"Sweet lover, I love Pleasant Street
I wheel, I steal, I feel my way down to kneel"
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
You don't remember what to say
You don't remember what to do
You don't remember which way to go
You don't remember who to choose
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
Lyrics:
You don't remember what to say
You don't remember what to do
You don't remember where to go
You don't remember what to choose
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
The sunshine reminds you of concreted skies
You thought you were flying but you opened your eyes
And you found yourself falling back to yesterday's lies
Hello, Pleasant Street, you know she's back again
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
At twilight your lover comes to your room
He'll spin you, he'll weave you 'round his emerald loom
And softly you'll whisper all around his ear
"Sweet lover, I love Pleasant Street
I wheel, I steal, I feel my way down to kneel"
All the stony people
Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes
I can't hesitate
And I can't wait
For Pleasant Street
You don't remember what to say
You don't remember what to do
You don't remember which way to go
You don't remember who to choose
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down
River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen
riverdeepbook.blogspot.com/
Kelley Lynch Email To IRS, FBI & DOJ Re: Why She Believes Michelle Rice & Other Lawyers Should Be Disbarred. From: Kelley Lynch ...wolfblitzzer0: Leonard Cohen stock fraud ? Agile was.
wolfblitzzer0.blogspot.com/2013/11/leonard-cohen-stock-fraud.html
Nov 9, 2013 - Cohen vs Kelley Lynch (Leonard Cohen Declaration in Support of . ....River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Kelley Lynch's Email To .Kelley Lynch - Leonard Cohen - IRS - Ray Lawrence - Scribd
https://www.scribd.com/.../Kelley-Lynch-Leonard-Cohen-IRS-Ray-Lawr...
Jul 31, 2013 - Leonard Cohen fot services I rendeted.20L3 t2 13 Kelley Lynch l4 15 ...... R. INOTE: riverdeep.cotn Subiect l(elley Lynch no longer has internet ...sony number: Sony Zeiss Sonnar T 35 mm F/2.8 ZA FE Lens ...
sonynumbers.blogspot.com/.../sony-zeiss-sonnar-t-35-mm-f28-za-fe.htm...
Oct 26, 2014 - <b>Sony</b> Zeiss Sonnar T 35 mm F/2.8 ZA FE Lens | DX Lens � Digital <b>...</b>; River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Kelley Lynch ... related:www.bloomberg.com/news/finance/ related:finance ...
www.nibbo.com/search?s=7&tab=6&q...bloomberg...
River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Kelley Lynch ... Since you are still intent on "poking the lion", could you please send emails (several) to Kelly Lynch... The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=1451657862Alan Light - 2012 - MusicA series of Facebook messages signed by Kelley Lynch and sent to writer Mikal ... were posted under the name “Cyber Terrorism” to a site called River Deep, ...Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 13.0 Build 932
sonymusicsm.blogspot.com/.../sony-vegas-movie-studio-platinum-130.ht...
Oct 26, 2014 - Garanta j� o seu; River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Kelley Lynch Email To <b>...</b>; An�lisis del <b>Sony</b> Xperia Z3 y opini�n ...
River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Evidence That ...
riverdeepbook.blogspot.com/.../evidence-that-will-be-attached-to-my.ht...
Oct 29, 2012 - Leonard Cohen, from The Letters, on his album Dear Heather .... begged for food from villages and towns, and didn't have so much as a penny. .... The suit accuses Kelley Lynch, who was Cohen's manager and is also named in ...... Cohen's demand for stock deals, lowered the playing field and made these ...Leonard Cohen's Troubles May Be a Theme Come True ...
www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/arts/06cohe.html
The New York TimesOct 6, 2005 - Mr. Cohen is also suing his former tax lawyer, Richard A. Westin, accusing him ... Mr. Cohen is also seeking damages from Neal Greenberg, his ...Kelley Lynch Schedule Of Agreed Upon Facts Greenberg vs ...
https://www.scribd.com/.../Kelley-Lynch-Schedule-Of-Agreed-Upon-Fac...
1 day ago - Leonard Cohen - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf), ... Holdings, LLC (―Traditional Holdings‖), a dissolved Kentucky entity ..... that Neal [Greenberg] and Richard [Westin] wanted to defraud LeonardRiver Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen: Evidence That ...
riverdeepbook.blogspot.com/.../evidence-that-will-be-attached-to-my.ht...
Oct 29, 2012 - Traditional Holdings, LLC), switched accountants, was advised on .... He, Richard Westin, and Neal Greenberg were absolutely hysterical and I ...Leonard Cohen Tickets On Sale Aug. 3 - Nashville Scene
www.nashvillescene.com/.../leonard-cohen-tickets-on-sal...
Nashville SceneJul 27, 2009 - We've got a little more info to report about the Leonard Cohen show Nov. ... I was told by Steve Blanq of Hochman, Rettig that Richard Westin, ... He made me nervous – particularly when he wrote that Neal Greenberg was ... Fortunately, Westin confirmed – via email – that Traditional Holdings, LLC was a ...wolfblitzzer0: Leonard Cohen stock fraud ? Agile was.
wolfblitzzer0.blogspot.com/2013/11/leonard-cohen-stock-fraud.html
Nov 9, 2013 - Its principal, Neal Greenberg, has been a prominent Boulder resident, and an industry .... Inc. or Traditional Holdings, LLC was held in trust for Cohen. ... 2004, Richard Westin wrote Leonard Cohen and Kelley Lynch a letter.Leonard Cohen Is Not A 'Great Man' - Phawker
www.phawker.com/2009/10/.../mailbag-leonard-cohen-is-not-a-great-ma...
Oct 23, 2009 - I never had sex with Oliver Stone and I was not Leonard Cohen's lover. .... so-called finances (managed by Neal Greenberg) in the fall of 2004. ... I refused and my lawyer wrote Westin asking him, as the architect of Traditional Holdings, LLC, ....Richard Westin emailed me that he only represented Leonard ... NATURAL WEALTH REAL ESTATE, Civil Case No. 05-cv ...
https://casetext.com/case/natural-wealth-real-estate-2
LEONARD COHEN, a Canadian citizen residing in California, Defendant and ... LLC ("Tactical"), directed by the plaintiff Neal Greenberg and headquartered in Boulder ... of a tax *33 attorney, Richard Westin, who is not a party to this case, Mr. Cohen ... calledTraditional Holdings LLC, in which he held a one percent interest. River Deep - Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen
riverdeepbook.blogspot.co.uk/
Nov 12, 2014 - To: Jeffrey Korn and Richard Westin cc: Greenberg Glusker and Multiple Parties ... LC Investments, LLC, Traditional Holdings, LLC, and Old Ideas, LLC ... As you know, the Stalker has been harassing me over Neal Greenberg.advanced theory blog: Leonard Cohen Lawsuit Update
advancedtheory.blogspot.com/2005/.../leonard-cohen-lawsuit-update.ht...
Oct 6, 2005 - Mr. Cohen is also suing his former tax lawyer, Richard A. Westin, accusing him of ... Mr. Cohen is also seeking damages from Neal Greenberg, his .... entity known as Traditional Holdings, LLC could be overturned by the IRS.Blahgonut
blahgonut.blogspot.com/
Nov 9, 2009 - 2) Why does the State of Kentucky feel Traditional Holdings, LLC was ... Leonard Cohen's tax lawyer, Richard Westin, resides there but he is not .... He made me nervous – particularly when he wrote that Neal Greenberg was ...
http://riverdeepbook.blogspot.com/2012/10/evidence-that-will-be-attached-to-my.html
Monday, October 29, 2012
Evidence That Will Be Attached To My Motion To Vacate/Declaration - Which Has Been Sent To The IRS, FBI, DOJ, Treasury, FTB, Dennis Riordan, & My Lawyers
A 'devastated' Leonard Cohen
The Canadian music icon is broke and the lawsuits are flying. It's a sordid tale involving allegations of extortion, SWAT teams, forcible confinement, tax troubles and betrayal.
KATHERINE MACKLEM | Aug 17, 2005
I said there's been a flood
I said there's nothing left
-- Leonard Cohen, from The Letters, on his album Dear Heather
Take an iconic artist, mix in missing millions, hints of tantric sex, a lawsuit replete with other salacious details, and a ruptured relationship with a long-time, trusted associate, and you've got the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Except in the case of Leonard Cohen, it's a true tale, with the bizarre twist of a Tibetan Buddhist suing a Zen Buddhist, Cohen. For the 70-year-old poet, singer and songwriter, it's a nasty, rapidly escalating legal battle that on the one hand accuses him of conspiracy and extortion, and on the other has him accusing both his highly trusted personal manager and long-time financial adviser -- the Tibetan Buddhist -- of gross mismanagement of his financial affairs. The case exposes not only private details of Cohen's finances, but also a dramatic tale of betrayal.
The only mention of “tantric sex” in this insanity had to do with Neal Greenberg’s phone call to me about private annuity obligations, Richard Westin’s emails to me, etc. Greenberg advised me at that time that he took classes in tantric sex and I thought it sounded insane. The 14th Sharmapa has addressed why he does not believe the “vajrayana” is appropriate for the west. That would include the fact that “sex is taught as the main core of tantric practice in the West and this does not benefit anyone” but is based on a “big misunderstanding.”
“After observing this movement for 30 years, my conclusion is that Vajrayana is not really suitable for most people in both the West and in Asia, including Tibet. You cannot generalize, of course. There are certainly exceptions, but in most cases it is not suitable. Since sex is taught as the main core of tantric practice in the West and this does not benefit anyone, what is generally practiced as Tantra in the West is based on a big misunderstanding.” 14th Shamarpa
An Answer to a Question Raised about Bodhi Path
Why the Bodhi Path Centers I organized are not Vajrayana?
The conflict, which Cohen and others have tried to keep out of public view, has left him virtually broke -- he's had to take out a mortgage on his house to pay legal costs -- and facing a multi-million-dollar tax bill. But the artist, who is soon to release a new album with his collaborator -- and current girlfriend -- Anjani Thomas, is today remarkably calm about the potentially embarrassing conflict. Still, when he discovered last fall that his retirement funds, which he had thought amounted to more than $5 million(all figures U.S.), had been reduced to $150,000, he wasn't so sanguine. "I was devastated," Cohen says. "You know, God gave me a strong inner core, so I wasn't shattered. But I was deeply concerned."
I believe Cohen wanted to keep the “conflict” from public view – including via meditations that I felt might produce “insurance fraud” with respect to Neal Greenberg or Richard Westin’s insurance companies because I absolutely believe Leonard Cohen, Neal Greenberg, Richard Westin, and others, created this conflict and that’s precisely why I decided to report the tax fraud to the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and others. I have spoken with Rob Watts/State of Kentucky’s Fraud Unit and Doug Davis/Franchise Tax Board. The prosecutor in the “intent to annoy” trial lied about the assets owned by Traditional Holdings, LLC. She understood, after questioning me, that there is evidence in the Bay Area that was concealed from the court and my jurors. She presposterously advised the jurors that this is the “unraveling of a con” and alleged that the IRS matter was nothing more than a ruse to contact Leonard Cohen. She belittled me, matters, advised the jurors that no one knows what 1099s or K-1s are (and may have said that people do not know what the IRS and FTB are), and yet LAPD’s report states that my alleged emails are generally requests for tax information. ATTACH LAPD’S REPORT. I have been representing myself through all these matters. The judge in the Boulder matter stated, for the record, that they frequently deal with pro per individuals. LAPD’s report notes that Kory refused to speak to me. I asked Phil Boche (representing me in the absurd “progress hearings” that include outrageous allegations that I have mental health issues and alcohol problems but Judge Vanderet appeared convinced that I am the guilty party which should be addressed in my appeal) to ask the judge to whom I should go to request a 1099, ask that the illegal K1s be rescinded, and request a full and complete accounting that is not an expense ledger. Leonard Cohen testified at the “intent to annoy” trial that the income from “Dear Heather’ appears on the expense ledger. No assets, valuations, corporate ownership interests, or income appears on the expense ledger and I have no access to royalty statements – dating back to 1967 – with which to create a full and proper accounting that also addresses Leonard Cohen’s loans, monies he owes me personally – including for commissions – or expenses I encountered with respect to him. That would include, but is not limited to, rent at Stranger Management because my office was over-run with this man’s files, archives, etc. I had to store documents for him, as a courtesy, and this evidently led to a companion matter that I am wholly in the dark about – except for the fact that LASD entered my home and seized documents, including partnership documents as noted on their very shabby inventory form. Leonard Cohen had an obligation (knowing that I had an office in my home – and I, not Leonard Cohen, determined where I would work … my office or my home office) to contact me and make arrangements to have his so-called documents, etc., picked up. LASD is not a moving van for a greedy, lying, fraud songwriter who lies through his teeth and should be prosecuted for his perjury and held accountable for the fact that I was sent to jail and Phil Spector was convicted by a Grand Jury and ultimately ended up in prison based on “prior bad acts.” I was not in a “dating relationship” with Leonard Cohen, there is no domestic violence, but this man has a pattern of lying, embellishing stories, concealing facts and evidence, and perjuring himself in any court of law he rolls into. I personally believe ICE should investigate why he abandoned a green card in 1988 and then re-obtained one in 1991 or 1992. Where did Leonard Cohen pay taxes between 1998 and 1991 or 1992? My former brother-in-law, Van Penick, wrote me a letter as his sister-in-law about Cohen’s residence/tax issues in Canada and personally advised me (with Cohen sitting next to me) that there’s no good news in Canada either. Cohen was advised, at that time, to suspend his temple membership, close his bank accounts, sell his residences, and address all residency ties to Canada. He did not. In 1977, he was advised that he did not have to pay taxes in any country where he had residences (the U.S., Canada, and Greece were mentioned) and cautioned him not to have a green card. He clearly ignored that caution and one can safely assume that he abandoned his green card after Marty Machat’s death in 1988 so that he could blame a man who is no longer able to defend himself. Leonard Cohen withheld commissions due Machat & Machat for work they did leading to his album “I’m Your Man” and the tour that insued, probably other royalty commissions, and sold “Stranger Music, Inc.” to Sony without advising any of us that Machat & Machat owned 15% of that entity and the assets (ie., intellectual property). I uncovered evidence, after Cohen and I parted ways in October 2004). That evidence was a letter from Marty Machat/Machat & Machat to Carter/Irving Trust transmitting Machat & Machat’s check for $30,000.00 representing their 15% interest in Stranger Music, Inc. The letter also seemed to indicate that record producer Bob Johnston also owned 15% of Stranger Music, Inc. Bob Johnston will have to speak for himself about that issue.
So far, only one formal court filing involving Cohen has been made. In June, Boulder, Colo.-based Neal Greenberg, Cohen's investment adviser of almost a decade, launched a hyperbole-laden claim in Colorado against Cohen, who lives in both Los Angeles and Montreal. The suit accuses Kelley Lynch, who was Cohen's manager and is also named in the suit, of siphoning money from the songwriter. It also accuses Cohen and his lawyer Robert Kory of conspiracy, extortion and defamation. It alleges the two, in an attempt to recover at least some of Cohen's lost money, threatened to besmirch Greenberg's reputation and concocted a plan to force Greenberg to give Cohen millions of dollars.
Norman Posel/Boies Schiller used me horrendously to obtain information that would benefit his client, Neal Greenberg. Posel was my Buddhist teacher’s translator and His Holiness Kusum Lingpa asked him to provide me with the evidence that Cohen intended to silence and terrify me. Boies Schiller did provide me with an email stating that Cohen/Kory intended to destroy me and my children. I tend to doubt they were going to destroy my children legally although they have both been targeted. Ray – custody matter. Rutger – sign over house; Cohen’s testimony Rutger’s Whole Foods matter. I provided Boies Schiller with three huge boxes of evidence (including the Machat & Machat letter; minutes prepared by Westin confirming that Cohen’s level of borrowing from TH was “dangerous” to the structure; etc.) and they wrote me that Cohen was attempting to blame me for his wrongdoing; advised me to sue him for fraud, concealment, intentional torts, and whatever it means to destroy someone’s life legally (it’s more than an “intent to annoy,” I would presume by I am not a lying prosecutor whose name is Sandra Jo Streeter, a woman’s whose conduct I have reported to a supervisor at the City Attorney’s office – Will Revera – and advised the IRS, FBI, DOJ, Treasury, FTB, and others that she clearly attempted to sabotage the IRS matters, my future litigation issues, and preserve Cohen’s credibility although that might be difficult now that there are two Leonard Cohen/Phil Spector good rock ‘n roll gun stories before LA Superior Court). Boies Schiller understood Cohen owed me millions and told me to find a lawyer who wanted to help me take down another “Hollywood fraud.” I siphoned no money from anywhere. I was added to the Greenberg lawsuit re. inter-pleaded funds totaling $150,000.00 which in no way addresses the assets that prosecutor Sandra Jo Streeter lied to my jurors about in the “intent to annoy” matter. This woman lied to the bail judge, lied extensively to the court and my jurors, pranced around in truly disturbing skin tight outfits – that wrapped her rolls of fat in spandex, was gushing on her cell phone about “celebrity” Leonard Cohen, baby talked the judge, broke the podium, and something else, etc. She is unconscionably aggressive and she is a bald-faced liar who may have had motive – perhaps she could advance her shameless career with celebrity Leonard Cohen while entertaining the DA’s investigator in the courtroom with Cohen, his lawyers and PI, who my lawyer advised me was seen LUNCHING with Leonard Cohen. This led me to believe that I truly was in LA Confidential and not a Hollywood movie. The assets of TH and BMT are not Cohen’s “lost money” and this again raises issue related to “alter ego” and “self-dealing.” I heard, from my lawyers, that Kory advised them (in a meeting where I was discussed for 7 minutes while Greenberg and Westin were discussed for three hours) that Cohen intended to go on Oprah and blow the whistle on Greenberg and Westin. Kory personally told me (at a meeting he testified about and which Boies Schiller advised me to have Investigator Brian Bennett/DA’s office wire me because Cohen and Kory were attempting to engage me in criminal conduct and they assured me that recording them would not be a set up) that there is fraud on all entities; I have a lawsuit against every one of Cohen’s advisers; and, the holding periods re. the intellectual property assignments to various entities are illegal. He also confirmed that he was speaking with Betsy Superfon, a woman who I was told was attempting to negotiating a settlement between me and Cohen without my knowledge, understanding and awareness. She recently advised me that Cohen’s informant was Julie Isenberg whose father, Joel Isenberg, was Superfon’s partner – they were audited by the IRS when they had a sex phone line and apparently understand that the last thing anyone wants to deal with is a major IRS audit that includes the seizing of documents, hidden assets, etc. In fact, Superfon advised me that Joel Isenberg his $90-100 million belonging to her and told her he was visiting it in a Swiss bank. Address Cohen’s Swiss bank account, off-shore accounts, green cards, numerous social security numbers, etc. Superfon told me Julie Isenberg (who worked for me one week in August 2004) was jealous of me. Cohen refers to her, in his legal filings before this court, as my staff employee. This woman could not pack a greeting card order let alone undertake to read corporate books records, review accountings, investment statements, etc. It is absurd. Superfon also advised me that Julie Isenberg assaulted her maid, stole her jewelry and dogs, stole a file, moved to Las Vegas and was a stripper with a serious drug problem. After this incident, Superfon told me that Joel Isenberg threatened to advise law enforcement that she ran a brothel which is not anything I ever witnessed. I personally spoke to Joel Isenberg, in 2005, with Superfon present. I advised him that his daughter inserted herself in very serious criminal tax fraud relating to Leonard Cohen. Yongzin Rinpoche and his wife visited me in the spring of 2005 and he advised me to invite Superfon over to visit with us. I did. At that time, we discussed her conversations with Cohen and Kory, the role Greenberg played in this matter, and other issues. I then authorized Superfon to speak directly to Kory about the type of deal Cohen was interested in. Superfon advised me that Cohen felt remorseful, terrified, and told her that I was the “love of his life” which sounds deranged and reminds me of all his other bald-faced lies including at my bail hearing where he told the judge we only had a business relationship. This perjury was addressed at my “intent to annoy” trial. Superfon spoke with Kory and was advised tha the type of deal they had in mind could not be faxed through to me. When I asked her “Why?” she answered that the type of deal they had in mind was “illegal.” Kory asked Superfon to arrange a luncheon between the three of us. The rest is now history although I never agreed to the lunch. Custody matter – coordinated. SWAT incident. Killer King – Phil Spector. Etc. S&MPD and Boulder PD – Cohen/Kory contacted them. Viramontes/LAPD has now contacted Agent Tejeda/IRS, told me he left a message, advised me he took my statement and would send a copy of the updated report by fax to Agent Tejeda/IRS and email a copy to Agent Sopko/Treasury, and advised me that the IRS is obligated to obtain the 1099 I need for the year 2004, must rescind the illegal K-1s, and must provide a copy of the accounting, etc., that I have attempted to request from Cohen and his advisers for a number of years now. ATTACH MICHELLE RICE’S TWO FEBRUARY 14, 2011 EMAILS.
It also accuses Cohen and his lawyer Robert Kory of conspiracy,extortion and defamation. It alleges the two, in an attempt to recover at least some of Cohen's lost money, threatened to besmirch Greenberg's reputation and concocted a plan to force Greenberg to give Cohen millions of dollars.
I personally believe Cohen and Kory were in a conspiracy, obviously, with other parties and was confused about Kory’s testimony at my “intent to annoy” trial that two people must be involved in a conspiracy. It made me wonder if I was witnessing a legal conspiracy with respect to Cohen, Kory, Rice, prosecutor Sandra Jo Streeter, and the District Attorney of Los Angeles. My lawyers, at that time, felt that Streeter attempted to sabotage an IRS matter, should be investigated and prosecuted by the IRS, and advised me – this is a direct quote – that the “DA does not want the Phil Spector verdict overturned.” That’s their problem. Did Greenberg give Cohen millions of dollars? It is bizarre that he was not named as a party to Cohen’s lawsuit – although Scott Edelman publicly announced that they planed to file suit against Neal Greenberg. It is my personal opinion that this matter and Neal Greenberg’s lawsuit (filed in the Denver federal court) were orchestrated and are evidenve of obfuscation, obstruction of justice, concealment, fraud, perjury, etc. I am entitled to transcripts of the settlement negotiations between Cohen and Westin. These mediations were addressed at my “intent to annoy” trial. I am entitled to know the details of the settlement between Cohen and Westin. This has all been concealed from me.
The suit paints an almost preposterous picture of Cohen as an artist who led a lavish celebrity lifestyle and then turned bitter and vindictive when he discovered the money had run out. For example, the suit quotes Lynch describing how Cohen demanded she discuss business matters while he soaked in a bubble bath, and how later he was somehow involved in calling a SWAT team to her home, where she was handcuffed and forcibly taken to a psychiatric ward while in her bathing suit.
I have addressed Cohen’s “lavish” lifestyle. Leonard Cohen turned hysterical, vicious, malicious, vindictive, vengeful, etc. when he HEARD I was going to the IRS, received a notice from the IRS re. my 2001 tax returns (re. Traditional Holdings, LLC), switched accountants, was advised on various corporate issues, and could not be backed into various deals – including being offered 50% community property in a meeting where $10,000/month walking around money was raised. I later heard that there was some discussion about $2,000/month walking around for my parents. Dale Burgess, my account (who did not “resign” as Cohen testified at my “intent to annoy” trial but rather completed the work he was hired to do – assist me with my tax returns, see to it that Cleveland completed my 2003 tax return, and instruct me on precisely what I owed to the IRS: Burgess noted that I have a carry back), advised me – after I met with Agent Sopko and her partner from the U.S. Treasury – to let the IRS and Treasury know that he recalled my being offered 50% community property and asked me to inform the IRS and Treasury that my lawyers understood that Cohen’s tax fraud was criminal in nature. I know this for a fact because, in our last meeting (where Blue Mist Touring was discussed – my lawyers told me I was entitled to the IP regardless of where Cohen and his advisers transferred it) my lawyers at DiMascio & Berardo personally advised me that Cohen’s tax fraud was criminal, he exposed me to that tax fraud – unwittingly (acknowledged that all facts prove that I tried repeatedly to determine what was going on), and told me they were planning to figure in a settlement amount for my exposure to criminal tax fraud. Cohen lied that I fired all my attorneys and that would include Mike Taitelman (pawn vs. orchestrated – Kory), Bert Deixler (discussed loans with Kory and spoke to DiMascio), and Zia Modabber.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. Cohen is expected to file a countersuit this week. More lawsuits are likely to join the fray. And Lynch, who has sent turgid, raw and wrathful emails hither and yon, is threatening to sue just about everyone.
This is correct. Cohen preferred bankrupting me and using absolutely unconscionable tactics against me. More lawsuits are absolutely likely to follow. I’m not threatening to sue anyone. I have absolutely asked Phil Spector to join me in a lawsuit against the District Attorney of Los Angeles and was clear at my trial – I believe Steve Cooley needs to be investigated; have repeatedly contacted the FBI about the DA’s official misconduct; and absolutely believe Leonard Cohen and his advisers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have no idea why Judge Robert Vanderet, in my “intent to annoy” trial, decided to conceal the testimony of Agent Tejeda/IRS (who was meeting with IRS attorneys to determine what he could testify about) from my jurors – but I know this: the nearly $700,000.00 refund Cohen obtained from the IRS falsely accusing me of misappropriating funds is being contested and I can assure this court that Agent Tejeda/IRS knows this – as do the agency’s who are copied in on my emails documenting the destruction of my life since Cohen heard I was going to the IRS. That would include the IRS Commissioner’s Staff, FBI, DOJ, Agent Sopko/Treasury, Doug Davis, FTB, and it also includes Dennis Riordan, Phil Spector’s appellate counsel who Cohen testified he saw copied in on my emails. He was also asked if he saw the IRS copied in. Perhaps that’s why he is paranoid. After all, my lawyers calculated what Cohen owes the IRS – on one entity alone (TH) – should this be brought to the attention of the IRS. The penalties and interest, as of 2004, totaled approximately $10 million and I was told that there are similar penalties and interest with respect to BMT and LCI. That does not address Old Ideas, LLC. Cohen’s tax lawyer advised me, after forming Old Ideas, LLC (re. “Dear Heather” publishing), that he believed I was entitled to 15% ownership interest in that entity. He was correct and he clearly understood my ownership interest in Cohen’s publishing, etc.
The conflict was triggered last fall when Cohen was tipped off by an insider that a lot of money was missing from his accounts. All that remained of his retirement savings was the $150,000, funds that today he can't get at as a result of the tangled legal web he finds himself in. Greenberg's suit portrays the soulful songwriter as an artist who paid little attention to his financial affairs and so was easily duped by a conniving personal manager. Cohen says he tried quietly, and confidentially, to find out from his various managers where the money had gone. Cohen calls the case "a tragedy," suggesting he was exploited by trusted advisers. He uses words like "greed, concealment, and reckless disregard," and says firmly he did nothing wrong. "I can assure you, within reason, I took every precaution except to question the fidelity of my closest associates."
Julie Isenberg did NOT tip Cohen off that “a lot of money was missing from his accounts” and that allegation is farcical. I advised Judge Louis Babcock that this matter was nothing other than a tax matter related to Leonard Cohen’s criminal tax fraud that I believed Greenberg and Westin helped Cohen create – for the express purpose of avoiding taxes – and I ultimately advised Babcock to send the $150,000.00 to Leonard Cohen. After all, Boies Schiller advised me in 2005 that Leonard Cohen was actually going to prove that he personally committed tax fraud and participated in that. He has also successfully proven, from my perspective, that he engaged in self-dealing and views himself as the “alter ego” of these aptly named “corporate fictions” that are sham/shell entities. They remind Cohen’s accountant, Ken Cleveland, of Enron. Cohen wasn’t “duped” by his personal manager but it is important to note that Brian Johnson/MacLean’s, the NY Times, and Bob Hilburn/LA Times all understood (after speaking to Cohen) that I was his personal manager. Leonard Cohen sounds like he’s hung around with too many lawyers and investigators. He uses words like “greed, concealment and reckless disregard” and also believes there was “implied malice” in a Dallas FBI investigation that involved the brother and uncle of a man I met while homeless in Santa Monica. That matter relates to an unconscionable family involved with meth production, meth cooking, meth labs, the Aryan Nation, and the Cartel. It in no way whatsoever indicates “implied malice” towards Leonard Cohen but either proves that he is a bald-faced liar with motive or is delusional and his long history of psychiatric problems, drug and alcohol abuse, and lying have finally taken a toll on this lying fraud who has a habit of stealing and has no ethics, morals, or religious beliefs – at all – from what I can tell. I think Cohen was startled by this so-called trusted adviser’s activity – going to the IRS. He underestimated me and my fidelity. I have no allegiance, at all, to criminal conduct or a man that would play a role in the conviction and imprisonment of my dear friend, Phil Spector. I spoke with Wendy/Judge Larry Fidler’s clerk today. She advised me to call the DA’s office re. the two gun stories re. Phil Spector/Leonard Cohen before LA Superior Court. I have called the DA’s office. I have been threatened by that office – after I was told that I was probably a witness in the Phil Spector matter in 2007. I am most certainly not a witness and advised them (after consulting with my attorney in Colorado, David Moorhead) that I would take the 5th Amendment if they dared put me on the witness stand and would advise the judge that their conduct towards me was nothing other than thuggery. Captain Jack Horvath, DA’s personal security detail, LIED to the court when he wrote and said I contacted them in 2007. That’s a bald faced lie with a man who clearly has motive – Investigator Brian Bennett rolled by my house in 2005 to question me about Phil Spector after the DA’s office received an anonymous tip about my friendship with Phil Spector. The DA’s office appears to have caller ID but Bennett told me this tip came from a woman. As for the SWAT incident … I’ll leave the last word for my African Grey parrot who has been stolen by Doug ? – when he saw LAPD enter my house, after lying to my son that I had a hostage, etc. he told the sergeant that he “saw dead people.” He’s very fortunate he wasn’t arrested for criminal threats and hauled out in tiny handcuffs, based on what I have seen in this LA Confidential situation. Did LAPD think my bikini was the high-powered weapon? That remains to be seen.
Until Cohen fired her last fall, Kelley Lynch had been his personal manager for almost 17 years.
Brian Johnson is correct. I was Cohen’s personal manager for approximately 17 years.
Back in 1988, she'd been working as an assistant to his then-manager, who died that year. Because she was knowledgeable about Cohen's business affairs and recording contracts, he had her take over. Over the years, the two developed a personal and professional relationship. Fifteen years ago, they had a brief affair. "It was a casual sexual arrangement. It was mutually enjoyed and terminated," he says. "I never spent the night." The end of the affair didn't affect their bond. "We were very, very close friends," Cohen says today.
Cohen advised Johnston that 15 years ago we had a brief affair, a “casual sexual arrangement.” Leonard Cohen is saying that in 1990 I had a casual sexual affair with him but I was involved with Steven Clark Lindsey and had his son in 1992. Leonard Cohen is a bald-faced liar with motive and I believe he was involved with DeMornay at this time. When he broke up with her in 1994, he told me he broke up with her because of me. Who knows what this man actually thinks and frankly – who cares. He lies as easily as he breaths. Leonard Cohen is going to prove that we had a “casual sexual arrangement.” Were we very, very close friends? I don’t think so. I don’t believe this man is close to anyone. Did he like me immensely? Were our families close – then why has he falsely accused my parents and sister of activity they haven’t engaged in? … Helpful while raising his daughter? I see. Who cares if he named me in documents. We did indeed correspond relentlessly and he testified that we spoke daily so it’s nearly impossible to believe (and I know it’s not true) that this man was in the dark about anything. He is an absolute micro-manager. I refused to eat lunch with Cohen, Thomas, Robinson, and Ungar. I was listening to Cohen and Thomas badmouth Robinson and Ungar relentlessly and found it unconscionably deranged. Leonard Cohen is a relentless gossip who badmouths nearly everyone in his life.
"I liked her immensely. Our families were close -- she was helpful when I was raising my daughter; I employed her father." He even named her in his living will, giving her the power to decide, in certain circumstances, if he would live or die. He handed her vast powers of attorney. He trusted her implicitly. And he believed the relationship was mutual. "She wrote dozens of emails to me, thanking me for my help. We used to correspond regularly, relentlessly." He says that in 2004, while he was recording his most recent album, Dear Heather, with a small team at his home-recording studio, Lynch would come by almost daily. "People were very tight. Kelley was taking care of business, I was producing the album. It was all taking place in this little duplex and the garage that was converted into a studio. Kelley would come over, and I would generally prepare lunch for everyone."
The cosy arrangement was shattered one day last October when a young man, the boyfriend of a casual employee of Lynch, spoke to Cohen's daughter, Lorca, who owns an art deco furniture store and who lives downstairs from her father in the L.A. duplex he owns. "Your father really ought to look into his accounts, because he might be surprised at what he finds," he said. Lorca told him that her father trusted everyone involved and that besides, "he's about to retire, anyway." As Cohen senior tells the story, the young man replied, "He won't be able to retire."
The young man, the boyfriend of a casual employee of Lynch is evidently (according to Superfon who knows here) Julie Isenberg who may be doing drugs and stripping in Las Vegas. Should Lorca Cohen’s father look into his “accounts.” That sounds like Leonard Cohen and so does the word “informant.” Leonard Cohen likes to embellish stories – see his various accounts of his role in the Bay of Pigs, Yom Kippur War, and – of course – the Phil Spector alleged gun stories.
Alarmed, Lorca called her father, who was in Montreal. Within a couple of days, he returned to Los Angeles and immediately went to his bank.
This is not what happened – at all – and I was there. Leonard Cohen flew in hysterical and we discussed the fact that he heard I was going to the IRS. At that time, Cohen offered me anything I wanted and advised me that he wanted the corporate books and records that I took home and then handed over to my lawyers. He wanted me to meet with Richard Westin (his tax lawyer who was flying in) to unravel their handiwork on these entities. He, Richard Westin, and Neal Greenberg were absolutely hysterical and I believe that each have motive to be hysterical about the IRS. The State of Kentucky felt the IRS would go back and audit Cohen from the date he first obtained a green card which I believe would be in the late 60s or early 70s. They told me the cumulative interest would be impossible for Cohen to climb out of. Cohen did NOT immediately go to the bank.
There he discovered, as he puts it, "improprieties." Lynch had linked her American Express bill directly to his personal chequing account, he says, and just days before his visit to the bank, he'd paid a $75,000 Amex bill on her behalf.
Leonard Cohen most certainly did NOT pay a $75,000 American Express bill on my behalf. My American Express account was NOT directly linked to his personal checking account.
He never learned what purchases the card had been used for, but says the credit card company reimbursed him.
If the credit card company reimbursed him for these so-called monies (without telling him what “purchases the card had been used for – which sounds like sheer lunacy) then Cohen should be charged with fraud and theft.
Cohen immediately removed Lynch's signing powers on the accounts. The next day, Cohen told Lynch she no longer had access to the bank accounts and he fired her. That afternoon, Cohen says the bank notified him that Lynch went to a different branch and attempted to withdraw $40,000 from one of his accounts. He then called a lawyer and brought in a forensic accounting firm, Moss-Adams, which, in an investigation of all of Cohen's holdings, discovered "massive improprieties." In all, the accountants discovered about $8.4 million had over time disappeared from his holdings, Cohen says. His retirement funds had been virtually depleted.
Leonard Cohen’s a good fiction writer. This story is a bald-faced lie. Michelle Rice advised Viramontes/LAPD that she was representing Cohen since the beginning of 2004 which is really quite sinister. Kevin Prins flew to San Francisco to meet with Dale Burgess … See Dale Burgess fax. The IRS has to undertake an accounting and audit to address the assets, valuations, corporate ownership interests, expenses, loans, etc. Leonard Cohen will say anything and the news media is really quite complicit in his masterful manipulations of them, various courts, judges, law enforcement, etc. WHAT retirement account? The one that he believes he is the alter ego of – Traditional Holdings, LLC?
Neal Greenberg, a banker with a thriving investment firm, had been brought in by Lynch to manage Cohen's money in 1996, two years after Cohen went up Mount Baldy to study to be a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk. But now, he was worried. Over two decades, Greenberg had built a successful company, the Agile Group, and managed more than half-a-billion dollars of other people's money. He enjoyed, as he says in his suit, a "spotless professional reputation." And suddenly, here was Leonard Cohen, not just a prized client but one with a high profile, suggesting that Greenberg was party to the disappearance of Cohen's retirement savings.
Neal Greenberg was NOT brought in by Lynch. Lynch met with CNB, an investment firm recommended by Peter Lopez (NOTE – Cohen defrauded Peter of $90,000), etc. and felt Greenberg was churning, mingling assets on statements – and she demanded that he provide separate statements for each account, etc. Greenberg is no longer a successful investor. Attach information re. SEC. Neal Greenberg did NOT enjoy a “spotless professional reputation” and many people wonder why this so-called Buddhist is not in prison. In fact, I last heard – from a mutual friend of ours – that he moved to Montreal, Quebec and stashed millions of dollars in off-shore accounts. I have brought that allegation to the attention of the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and it should most definitely be investigated.
Over the years, he says, he warned Cohen that his funds were being rapidly depleted, but it seemed the artist paid no heed. And now, Cohen and his lawyer, Kory, claims the Greenberg suit, were threatening "that Cohen would go out on tour to promote his new album and give interviews to reporters in which he would insinuate that he was touring because he had been bankrupted by improprieties by Greenberg and other financial advisers." Greenberg must have envisioned his business and his career in absolute tatters. He sued.
Leonard Cohen did NOT want Greenberg to know about his other income sources and future income. This may have lead to Greenberg’s concern about dwindling finances. Leonard Cohen planned to tour behind “Dear Heather,” was looking at a multi-million deal with Sony/ATV, understood the $4 million lithograph deal I was negotiating, and had just received a $1 million advance for “Dear Heather” in August/September 2004 and advised me NOT to tell Greenberg about that deposit because he no longer trusted him. I never trusted Greenberg. Cohen and Kory were, according to my lawyers, planning to advise the news media that Greenberg and Westin were responsible for the outrageous situation that has now caught up with him. I suppose they changed their mind once Westin settled and Greenberg’s lawsuit was basically brought to an end by Judge Babcock. Greenberg evidently had good reason to envision his company and career in absolute tatters.
Greenberg's lawsuit lays out the business background to the dispute. Cohen's success as a singer and songwriter generated millions in royalties, the suit says, and in the 1990s, Lynch, as Cohen's trusted personal manager, began to investigate auctioning his intellectual properties, including copyrights to his song catalogue and continuing royalties for his songs. Lynch, along with a tax consultant named Richard Westin, arranged two deals for Cohen's properties. The transactions were eventually completed, one in 1997, the other in 2001, with Sony Music. From the first sale, about $5 million was transferred to trusts that Greenberg had been enlisted to manage and that would protect Cohen from an upfront tax hit. Greenberg says he invested the proceeds wisely, making lots of money for the trusts. But Greenberg also claims that Cohen's "consistent and prolific spending" to support "his extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle" eroded the gains he had made on his client's behalf.
In 1994, Cohen advised me to approach Eric Kronfeld (Marty Machat and Allen Klein’s former partner and the CEO of Polygram at the time – who were buying publishing assets) about selling intellectual property, including copyrights to the song catalogue, continuing royalties, and record contracts. The IRS Commissioner’s Staff should investigate how personal service contracts were sold as intellectual property. Ed Dean, Cohen’s lawyer, was concerned about assigning personal service contracts to the two charitable remainder trusts. He also advised me that I was Cohen’s worse nightmare and felt the IRS Commissioner’s Staff should or would come in after not only Cohen but his lawyers and accountants as well. Burt Goldstein, Cohen’s former accountant, was astounded to hear that I had contacted the IRS Commissioner’s Staff (and received confirmation from Agent Sopko/Treasury that they were reading my emails and various individuals were handling various aspects of this entirely complex matter) and asked me if I would be a witness for him – with respect to the fact that he was asked, by Cohen after Marty Machat’s death, to unravel the insanity surrounding Cohen’s numerous social security numbers. I absolutely intend to be a witness for Burt Goldstein because I know what Cohen told him and me about that confusion. I worked with Peter Shukat and Jonas Herbsman on the first sale of assets in 1996. Cohen was furious and felt gypped although he agreed to the sale and was upset that Sony stepped in and exercised their matching rights – something Cohen is entirely clear about. Richard Westin and Neal Greenberg handled the tax, financial, and accounting aspects of that 1996 deal and Peter Shukat and Jonas Herbsman (who were shocked when Cohen called him and lied about me) were transaction attorneys. Peter Lopez then helped negotiate (and did an extraordinary job, I might add) the CAK bond deal. Peter has since died and his assistant, Christian, advised me that Cohen never paid Peter Lopez the $90,000.00 he was owed for all his hard work. Cohen hates to pay his advisers and if he sees a way out he will take that route. As Steven Machat said – Cohen should have paid us our share of the intellectual property. That is true understatement but this man has a pattern of falsely accusing his advisers and theft. SEE STEVEN MACHAT AND KELLEY LYNCH CONVERSATION. Arthur Indurky, another gentleman, Leonard Cohen, and I met at the Peninsula Hotel when Cohen decided to fire Peter Lopez after Charles Koppelman/CAK sued him over issues related to that failed deal. Cohen asked Arthur Indursky to represent him and his allegations (that I testified about in my “intent to annoy trial”) that Arthur Indurksy, the Grubman/Indursky firm, or Greg McBowman committed “fraud in the inducement” – ATTACH THE EVIDENCE I HAVE – is positively outrageous and laughable. Cohen demanded these deals. Greenberg did NOT invest well and has now lost everything he invested for his clients. ATTACH ARTICLES. The IRS Commissioner’s Staff, on an accounting, should address all fees and commissions paid Greenberg for his investment strategies re. TH.
The second sale of Cohen's intellectual property, in 2001, was for $8 million. With Westin, Lynch put that money into a newly formed company named Traditional Holdings LLC that also was intended to shield Cohen's earnings from a major tax hit. Lynch was named as owner of 99.5 per cent of the company, leaving Cohen holding just 0.5 per cent. Greenberg alleges that Cohen, well aware of the structure and its dangers, signed off on it. Westin had explained to Cohen, the suit says, that "the plan would only work if Cohen and Lynch maintained (as they had in the past)a long-term relationship of personal and professional trust." Traditional Holdings could also issue loans to its owners, Lynch and Cohen.
The second sale was actually $6.3 million and there are recoupment amounts that need to be reviewed by the IRS Commissioner’s Staff because I heard, in hindsight, that they are problematic. I put nothing whatsoever in Traditional Holdings and NOTHING was assigned to TH. I agree – all of this activity was intended to shield Cohen from a MAJOR TAX HIT and this goes to motive. Cohen, after receiving the first suggested ideas for TH, and I wrote Westin because Cohen did NOT want his children named as beneficiaries. No trust was ever created. I have no idea why and could care less. I would assume it’s due to the fact that TH would be rolled by into LCI and this was never intended to pay out an annuity obligation, obviously. Westin’s correct – the plan would only work if we maintained a relationship of personal and professional trust. None exists. I could not understand this type of structure, the annuity obligation or how an annuity was assigned to this entity (without the IP being actually paid for since it was in another entity), an investment strategy that involved a promissory note, etc. and therefore I asked Leonard Cohen for an Indemnity Agreement. I received one. It has been signed and it also pays my legal fees.
As soon as the new company was in place, "Greenberg was immediately alarmed by Cohen's desire and tendency to treat this company [Traditional Holdings] like his personal piggy bank," the lawsuit alleges. It goes on to claim Cohen took a $1-million advance on the second sale of assets to Sony, Lynch took a commission of $1.1 million, and fees for lawyers and accountants ate up another $714,000. And then, over the next few years, Lynch regularly borrowed money from the Traditional Holdings account in amounts of tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes for herself, sometimes acting for Cohen. The lawsuit claims that while Greenberg sent a monthly email statement to Cohen, it was always Lynch who told Greenberg to release the loans.
Greenberg never bothered telling me that he was alarmed that Cohen treated the assets belonging to TH as his “personal piggy bank” but later, after I grilled him on the issue, he confirmed that Cohen’s “level of borrowing was dangerous to the structure” as I informed the IRS when I initially reported the tax fraud. The minutes Westin prepared support this position. So does the letter Cohen and I received from Westin in or around September 2004 – which advised that the IRS could overturn this structure and gave me the resolve I needed to switch accountants, hire lawyers, pay my own taxes, and report this unconscionable situation to the IRS – and hand over the evidence to them that would allow for a successful prosecution of all parties who helped Cohen avoid his “major tax hit,” evade taxes, and use me unconscionably as a pawn. I took no commission. If it was indeed a commission, the IRS Comimssioner’s Staff might want to explain why TH paid a personal commission to Cohen’s personal manager for work that took years, involved other deals – including the failed CAK bond deal, etc. An accountant/attorney advised me that Cohen should have personally paid all transaction fees and they are not expenses of TH. Leonard Cohen was well aware of the percentages and amounts due his advisers – that would include payments of 5% to both Grubman Indursky and Greg Bowman who both had contracts signed with Cohen personally. The idea of rogue advisers is preposterous. I never borrowed money for Cohen. Cohen personally borrowed the money from TH and I asked his tax lawyer to prepare promissory notes (as I was instructed to do) and he seems to have intentionally prepared them on behalf of LC Investments, LLC – further supporting the allegations that Cohen and his advisers planned to roll back TH into LCI. See corporate books and records for distributions I was to receive, etc. Was it Lynch who always told Greenberg to “release the loans.” Well, I didn’t borrow money to buy Leonard Cohen’s girlfriend and son homes. I can assure you of that.
The Greenberg suit claims Lynch, always acting as Cohen's agent, told Greenberg what to do regarding the funds. For instance, Lynch instructed Greenberg to send Cohen the monthly email status reports, but Greenberg says she directed him to leave out day-to-day activities and the status of Traditional Holdings loans. Because the loans were to be repaid, Greenberg included them in the statements as assets, which meant that it appeared as though nothing had been taken out.
It “appeared” as though nothing had been taken out? Or, did it include assets known as loans with 6% interest?
Greenberg, who declined to comment for this article, claims in his suit he repeatedly stressed to Cohen that his spending was seriously draining his investments. In one warning letter, Greenberg told Cohen that Traditional Holdings had only $2.1 million left. Considering how quickly the money was leaving the account, Greenberg wrote, "I think you should consider your situation quite desperate." It's not clear if Cohen ever received this letter. On this, Cohen and Greenberg agree: they say many of Greenberg's attempted communications with Cohen were intercepted by Lynch.
Cohen, or someone on his behalf, attempted to change my home address (re. Stranger Mgmt.) to Cohen’s home address on Tremaine in Los Angeles. I filed a complaint about this situation with the USPS. This is called mail fraud and is a very serious crime.
On other points, Cohen disagrees. He was vitally interested in his financial affairs, he says. "It wasn't that I wasn't involved -- on the contrary, I took great pains to pay these professionals well and to solicit their advice and to follow it," he insists. "And, I was receiving a report every month from Neal Greenberg indicating that my retirement savings were safe." Cohen insists he was not made aware that Lynch had been named the majority owner of Traditional Holdings; instead, he says that in an early description of the company's structure, he had been told that his two children, Lorca and Adam, would be its principal owners. He says he was shocked to learn that Lynch had almost complete ownership. The mistake Cohen admits to is that "I paid close attention to everything except the possibility that my closest associate would embrace any irregularities in the discharge of her duties."
Cohen was indeed vitally interested in his financial affairs and every other aspect of his personal and professional life. He did – he took great pains to pay these professionals well, solicit their advice, and follow it. Cohen didn’t receive a “report” monthly from Greenberg. He received statements and a courtesy email – at my insistence (because they both lie) – that noted the loans were indeed assets of TH. The loans are assets and they were to be repaid within 3 years at 6% interest. Not sure what the issue is here. Neal Greenberg and Leonard Cohen had one another’s email addresses, phone numbers, etc. I think the two of them could have (and probably did) communicate directly. Cohen was made aware of the structure of TH and Greenberg and Westin are well aware of this. There was an early
Cohen also says he learned only recently that the two sales of his intellectual property to Sony were unnecessary. He understands now that those properties earned roughly $400,000 a year, before taxes. That was plenty for him to support what he calls his modest lifestyle. Cohen accuses Lynch of creating the deals in order to boost her own income. He paid her 15 per cent of his income, which generally earned her $90,000 a year, he says. With the sales of his intellectual property bringing in revenue in the millions, it boosted her income to seven figures.
Sure he did. See Leonard Cohen’s declaration in the CAK lawsuit filed in New York. He knows precisely what his income is and what royalties are being paid through. He also understood this – he needed to have sales from “The Future,” his best selling album, included in the due diligence figures. Greg McBowman is very clear about this. How can Cohen, therefore, only now understand that those properties were worth roughly $400,000/year. I recall royalties, addressed in the CAK lawsuit and Cohen’s declaration, of $700,000/year. Does Lynch accuse me of creating the deals to boost my income? Then why did Greg McBowman and I personally meet with him, sit down with him, and advise him NOT to sell these assets? Cohen’s demand for stock deals, lowered the playing field and made these sales unattractive, so that decreased my commissions.
Greenberg's lawsuit becomes more disturbing as it describes what happened after Cohen realized he'd lost millions of dollars. Greenberg says Cohen pressured him to go after his firm's insurance company for the money to repay him. "Be a man," Cohen told Greenberg, the suit says. By threatening his reputation, it appeared to Greenberg that Cohen, on Kory's advice, had decided to target Greenberg's and his insurance company's deep pockets. Then, alleges the lawsuit, Cohen and Kory began to pressure Lynch to join them in "their extortion scheme." From November 2004 to April 2005, the lawsuit says, Kory repeatedly let Lynch know, sometimes directly, sometimes through friends or other intermediaries, that Cohen was ready to "forgive" Lynch's obligations to him, and that she in fact could receive a hefty cut of "whatever funds could be extorted from Greenberg and other advisers with her co-operation."
I want more details about Neal Greenberg’s insurance company and possible insurance fraud. I want more details about the “extortion scheme.” Cohen and Kory never advised me that they were involved in an “extortion scheme” that they wanted my help with. Kory advised me that I had a lawsuit against every single Cohen adviser. I believe Bert Deixler spoke to Kory about loans – although I do not know if he specifically addressed Cohen’s loans from TH with Kory. I was never advised that I could receive a “heft cut of whatever funds could be extorted from Greenmberg and other advisers with” my cooperation. I did, however, have grave concerns that men like Arthur Indursky, Don Friedman, Stuart Fried, and Greg McBowman were being falsely accused of things they did not do.
Greenberg's suit alleges that when Lynch refused to participate, Kory and Cohen vowed to "crush her." It goes on to say their "tactics to terrorize, silence, or disparage Lynch" included threatening her that she would go to jail, and "paying two paroled convicts to make statements that they had observed Lynch's older son brandishing a gun and threatening to kill someone."
That’s correct. There is evidence that Cohen and Kory vowed to “crush” me and used tactics to “terrorize, silence, or disparage me” including threatening me with jail which they have now accomplished with the help of DCA Sandra Streeter and possibly individuals at the LA DA’s office since Cooley and Jackson were repeatedly raised at my trial, Cooley attempted to obtain a restraining order against me, and Captain Jack Horvath lied to the court about me in his letter submitted during the sentencing phase. I’ve spoken with Elie, who I do not view as a “paroled convict” and he doesn’t appear to have been paid to advise Cohen that my older son brandished a gun and threatened to kill someone, which never happened, but I am aware that Cohen/Kory targeted both of my children, filed a declaration in my younger son’s custody matter, and there are deadly serious matters relating to my older son.
Lynch's response, to all of this has been bitter, scattered and in some cases difficult to comprehend. In a rambling exchange of emails with Maclean's last week, she denied any wrongdoing. She also declined to discuss the Agile Group's lawsuit, describing it as "bogus" and "slanderous," while promising to file her own complaints against Cohen and other principal players in the case. She added her phone had been disconnected because she lacked money to pay the bills.
That’s correct. Bitterness, as I explained to Lt. Allende/LASD, might be the best word to describe my point of view but, as I just advised DDA Bill Hodgman, I won’t be sending thank you notes or flowers to Cohen any time soon. Were my emails “rambling?” Why? Because MacLean is an adoring fan of Cohen’s who is impressed with a fraud and a Canadian national treasure who cannot live in Canada because he has residence/tax issues there. That’s rich. I stand by my words at the time – Greenberg’s lawsuit was bogus and slanderous. I absolutely plan to file a complaint against Leonard Cohen and other principal players. Johnson’s clear about this so my emails must not have been all that rambling. My phone was disconnected.
In the meantime, she's been showering Cohen and others with invective-laden emails that alternately voice misery and hurl accusations at friends and former colleagues. Many of these lament losing custody of her 12-year-old son, Ray, to his father, music producer Steve Lindsay. A few devolve into the outrightly bizarre. One missive, sent July 17 and obtained byMaclean's, invites Greenberg in highly explicit terms to Lynch's home for an evening of tantric sex. "First I want to study the inner channels with you," it says. "Why not -- let's see who is better at tantric sex -- you or me."
Invective laden? I voiced misery and lament about the custody matter that was clearly coordinated by Lindsey who was meeting with Cohen and Kory, attempting to encourage me to do a deal with Cohen, was out of control with respect to Dinah Englund and their baby, appeared to be in dire financial straits (re. his publishing catalogue that included songs written by Mike Elizondo for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and others), was utterly abusive with me and my younger son, threatened me in front of His Eminence Choegon Rinpoche, and it just goes on and on. That’s correct – I did facetiously invite Greenberg to an evening of “tantric sex.” He liked to sexually harass my friends who worked for him and I thought he mimght want to study the “inner channels” rather than engaging in what I absolutely believe was and is criminal conduct and not appropriate for any Buddhist. I would suspect that Neal Greenberg wouldn’t understand “tantric sex” if he fell over it.
So troubling have the messages become that several people who know Lynch fear she's become unhinged. "I'm afraid she's suicidal," says Lindsay, her ex-husband, adding that in his judgment she's been acting erratically for the better part of a year. Cohen too sent Lynch a message last fall spelling out his concern in verse: You can't tell the difference between a threat / and a helping hand, he wrote. You can't tell the difference between a threat / and a solemn warning / from one of the few people / who still cares about you and your family.
Lindsey had motive to say he was afraid I was “suicidal.” I was not and am not. I was not acting erratically for the better part of a minute. Lindsey, on the other hand, was and many people witnessed his conduct. It is clear that Cohen and Lindsey aligned themselves with one nother. I can tell the difference between a threat and helping hand. A solemn warning? Here’s a solemn warning to anyone considering tax evasion: pay your taxes. Your actions will inevitably catch up with you. Leonard Cohen is a fraud and most definitely not one of the “few people who still cares about” me or my family. This man cannot stop lying.
Lynch's apparent troubles have had punishing legal consequences. Lindsay has obtained a temporary restraining order that prevents her from visiting her son. Tara Cooper, a former employee of a greeting card company Lynch started while still in Cohen's employ, has taken out a similar order after alleging that Lynch sent threatening emails and harassed her by phone. And two of her creditors -- upscale department stores Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman -- have filed collections claims against her in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Lindsey appears to have coordinated the custody matter and SWAT incident. Tara Cooper was in contact with Lindsey and I was told that her mother felt the best way for her to stay out of the custody matter was to take out a restraining order. According to Cooper and her sister, their mother is a “tantric sex” practitioner who advises teenagers that she is a CIA agent. LAPD’s phone calls to Tara Cooper definitely need to be investigated. Her ex-boyfriend advised me that she is psychotic and he appeared to have details regarding her activity at this moment in time. I never sent threatening emails to Cooper or harassed her by phone.
This is the mess that Leonard Cohen -- a man many believe floats a few inches above the ground -- finds himself in. These days, he's Zen-like. In the course of a long interview by phone from his home in Los Angeles, the man sometimes called the poet laureate of pessimism sounded almost bemused. "What can I do?" he asks. "I had to go to work. I have no money left. I'm not saying it's bad; I have enough of an understanding of the way the world works to understand that these things happen."
Many naïve people do believe Cohen “floats a few inches above the ground.” Phil Spector and I are not those individuals – and neither is the woman who just advised me that Cohen has them “bamboozled.” Leonard Cohen had money left. He received $1 million from Sony as an advance on “Dear Heather.” If he spent all that money from approximately September 2004 until August 2005, that has nothing to do with me.
His first choice of action when he learned his money was gone, he says, was to not do anything. Aware of how painful litigation could be, he says he wanted no part of it. "I said, 'I can walk away with nothing.' I said, 'Let me start again. Let me start fresh at 70. I can cobble together a little nest egg again.' " But he ran into a glaring, immediate problem: had he done nothing, he would have legally been responsible for the funds that had gone missing. And on that money, he'd owe millions in taxes, a sum he no longer had.
Leonard Cohen didn’t learn that money was gone. He heard, and we discussed this, that I was reporting his tax fraud to the IRS. I have done that. In fact, Robert Kory wrote me on May 24, 2005 advising me that the IRS will demand questions going back many years so that might want to interrogate this loser who Steven Machat calls “Satan.” We are getting to Cohen’s motive: he would owe millions in taxes. It has nothing to do with the non-existent missing funds.
His next step, "his second-best choice," was to negotiate with his advisers about the missing money. He approached Lynch, asking her to open her books. "She resolutely and unconditionally refused to open her books to any scrutiny whatsoever and instead began a bizarre email campaign to discredit me in some kind of way, which has gone all over the place," Cohen says, adding that he's launching a lawsuit this week with great reluctance. "I don't want anybody hurt. It's not my nature to pursue and to contend with people that way." Cohen says all he wants is to find out where the money went. "I'm not accusing her of theft," he says of Lynch. Still, his countersuit will likely describe how money was removed from his accounts.
What books? Cohen could easily obtain all statements from his bank accounts, corporate accounts, and Greenberg – which he did, without an accounting. Kory said this – if they proved I didn’t put money in off-shore accounts, we had a settlement. No money was placed in off-shore accounts – apart from Cohen’s off-shore accounts that I have brought to the attention of the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and others. They should contact Loyens & Volkmaars. Leonard Cohen appears to have taken “bearer bonds” from Marty Machat. Steven Machat and I have discussed this and I believe I saw a copy at Cohen’s house (in a file) with a reference to R&M Productions. Steven Machat confirmed that R&M Productions is the entity where Machat & Machat deposited their royalties. I resolutely and unconditionally refused to hand over the corporate books and records, meet with Cohen or his lawyers, and advised my lawyers to contact Cohen and his lawyer in writing and schedule a meeting with them. I refused to attend. They met and Westin was asked “Why didn’t you set the annuity up legally?” and responded, according to my lawyers “This is how we do things in Kentucky.” He advised my lawyers that he was not trained in tax preparation which is unconscionable. Having said that, he prepared and filed Cohen’s tax returns and other corporate returns. Cohen testified that his lawyer maintained his corporate books and records although that appears to contradict information in his legal documents. Cohen launched a lawsuit because I reported his tax fraud to Agent Betzer/IRS in April 2005 and then contacted the IRS Commissioner’s Staff in Washington, DC. It was and remains retaliatory. The good news – he told MacLean’s he’s not accusing me of theft and testified during cross-examination that I have not stolen from him.
Cohen appears to have been blindsided by Greenberg's lawsuit. He insists that he and Kory were in the midst of mediation with Greenberg when the financial adviser's lawsuit was suddenly and unexpectedly filed. He says the mediation had been confidential, at Greenberg's urging, as he feared for his reputation. In an email to Greenberg, Cohen urges him to make good. "Dear Neal, I believed in you. I depended on you," Cohen wrote in November 2004. "When things went wrong, does it make any sense that you would make your warnings available to the only person in the cosmos who had an interest in deceiving me? A single, simple email informing me that my accounts were being emptied would have been enough. I answered EVERY SINGLE EMAIL you ever sent me. Fortunately, I have them all.
I am entitled to all details regarding Cohen and Greenberg’s mediation as well as Cohen and Westin’s mediation. I don’t think the mediation was confidential for the reasons mentioned. I think it was confidential because the IRS might pick up on it.
"Face up to it, Neal," the email continues, "and square your shoulders: You were the trusted guardian of my assets, and you let them slip away . . . Restore what you lost, and sleep well." In his sign-off, Cohen delivered as much a piece of advice as his own philosophy: "Put this behind you and it will dissolve." There's an irony here, that a man who has struggled much of his life to distance himself from the material world now, at 70, finds himself in an intense battle with it. Still, he's not defeated. "This has propelled us into incessant work," he says of himself and Thomas. He exudes optimism about their new CD. "It's one of the best albums I've heard." It's not closing time quite yet.
That’s correct. Neal Greenberg was the “guardian of” Cohen’s “assets.” And Cohen is the alter ego who has engaged in self-dealing. All the IRS Commissioner’s Staff has to do is read Cohen’s interviews with Brian Johnson. He is very clear – as is his motive.
With CHARLIE GILLIS and BRIAN D. JOHNSON
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050822_110877_110877
Up close and personal
Cohen's lifestyle seems anything but lavish
BRIAN D. JOHNSON | Aug 17, 2005
Through interviewing him over the years, I've developed a bit of a relationship with Leonard Cohen. We stay in touch by email, and if I'm in Los Angeles or Montreal, the two cities he calls home, I might look him up. A few weeks ago, I joined him for dinner at his house in L.A. with his 30-year-old daughter, Lorca, and a friend. Leonard served matzo ball soup and beef brisket, a dinner prepared by a friend's mother and dropped off at his door. It was a Friday night, Shabbat, and before the meal they sang in Hebrew.(Though a Buddhist, Leonard maintains some Jewish traditions.)That night he told me what he'd hinted at months earlier in an email -- that he'd been stripped of most of his assets, and was mired in a legal battle with his money managers, who would accuse him of extortion. He said it would get nasty and personal, and that his name would be dragged through the mud.
Brian Johnson is impressed with Cohen, has been referred to as an “awe inspired fan,” and is one of the few journalists Leonard Cohen actually speaks to. Cohen was Buddhist for the entire I knew him but, after meeting Leon Wieseltier, he began his Friday evening Shabbat tradition. I wonder how Cohen “hinted” in an email months earlier (this article is dated August 17, 2005 – appears to coincide with Cohen’s lawsuit filed in August 2005 – and Johnson states that he was with Cohen a few weeks earlier in Los Angeles) that he’d been “stripped of most of his assets.” Cohen’s preparing Johnson for the fact that he is about to be revealed for who he truly is. He now has to convert himself into a “victim.” Cohen enjoys props. They include – popsicle, Matzo Ball soup, bananas, a stick of incense, doing his own dishes, tuna fish sandwiches, prayer beads, a “valice,” etc.
Now, after reading the pre-emptive lawsuit filed against him, a 34-page screed that reads like a salacious tabloid, I know what he meant. It's bizarre, and sad. But I had to laugh. In trying to portray this Zen poet as a criminal mastermind, his accusers kept referring to his "extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle." I've had a glimpse or two of that "lifestyle," and by celebrity standards, at least, it seems decidedly spartan.
Cohen’s extravagance is concealed from journalists and others. He has given Sasaki Roshi a gift of $500,000.00 which is quite extravagant to most citizens of the United States and Canada. He testified that he bought homes for his girlfriend and son. Those homes were worth, individually, approximately $400,000.00 to $500,000.00. Etc. He provided his son, Adam Cohen, with approximamtely $5,000-6,000.00 a month and I have a letter (dictated to me) where Cohen acknmowledges speaking to my father about the fact that Adam Cohen could not live on a budget of $6,000/month. Cohen bought a building, on Melrose Avenue, for his daughter Lorca Cohen. These are extravagances that most individuals cannot afford. Cohen’s flat in Los Angeles does seem “Spartan,” decidedly so, but most people don’t own homes (several) in Montreal, Los Angeles, and Greece. Nor do most people stay at the Four Seasons, etc. I have no idea what “celebrity standards” refers to but I know this – Oliver Stone felt that the donations he gave to His Holiness Kusum Lingpa were substantial and they pale in contrast to the donations Cohen gave to Joshu Sasaki Roshi. I happen to agree with Oliver Stone.
His home in Montreal, which he bought in 1972, is a sparsely furnished, unrenovated row house without air conditioning. There are a few Persian rugs scattered about. The most luxurious item, which he seems quite thrilled with, is a recently purchased Tempur-Pedic bed, with a fair-sized television at the foot of it. His house in L.A., on a leafy middle-class street not far from downtown, is a modest duplex with no pool. His daughter lives downstairs. There's a small recording studio in the backyard. In the living room/dining room, a portable CD player serves as the sound system.
Leonard Cohen intentionally maintains Spartan, European-like homes. He also patterned his decorations after those of Dominique Isermann’s home in Paris, France. Leonard Cohen bought three homes in Los Angeles. Leonard Cohen knows that journalists like the fact that he plays his CDs on a portable CD player and in his car.
Leonard enjoys red wine. I like to bring a good bottle when I come for dinner, but he's usually got something less expensive open. One night in L.A., after proudly serving a dinner of lentil soup that he'd made himself, he set about trying to fix an old toaster. The kitchen has no dishwasher. The only signs of extravagance I could detect were three kinds of premium tequila nestled in the freezer, which was stacked with TV dinners. Leonard doesn't go out much. He and his partner, Anjani Thomas -- who lives down the street -- do catch the occasional movie. Leonard saw War of the Worlds, which he said was "dumb -- and that's a word I never use." But it was at the mall, not at a Hollywood premiere.
Leonard Cohen enjoys very expensive bottles of wine. In fact, on “The Future” tour he was drinking three bottles of extremely expensive 1979 Chateau LaTour. Leonard Cohen has intentionally Europeanized himself so the fact that his kitchen has no “dishwasher” (which is frequently noted in articles about him) is obvious. Anjani Thomas lives down the street. Most people do not buy their girlfriends $18,000.00 baby grand pianos or Elton John’s manager’s assistant, Jill) $17,000.00 statues when they hardly know the individual but seem dead set on impressing Don Henley at a charity event. Leonard Cohen uses the words “dumb” and “fun.” It disarms people. The same is true of his “courtly manners” which Sylvie Simmons (biographer who has a chapter in her book called “Taxes, Children & Lost Pussy”) mentioned.
In a triumph of redundancy, the lawsuit against Cohen describes him as a "famous celebrity" -- not to be confused, one supposes, with all those unknown celebrities. Leonard is, indeed, famous in Canada as well as in some other countries, such as Norway. If he decides to tour again, he'll have no trouble selling out concert halls around the world. And in Montreal, where he's a patron saint, he does get recognized on the street.
Leonard Cohen was discussing a tour, behind “Dear Heather,” with me in 2004. Johnson notes that Cohen will have no trouble selling out concert halls around the world but Cohen advised the news media that he was broke and had to go on tour. I wonder what happened to the $1 million advance he received in August/September 2004 (just before he heard I was going to the IRS about his tax fraud – October 2004)? That sounds like quite a lot of money. Cohen also made substantial monies from the lithograph deal I negotiated for quite a long period of time. Etc.
But in Los Angeles, a town saturated with stardom, he's virtually anonymous. More legend than star, Leonard has achieved an ideal level of celebrity. He knows how to play the game and how to woo the media. In 1994, he vanished for five years to serve as a monk at a monastery on Mount Baldy in southern California, without fear of losing his place. He knew that when he came down from the mountain and re-entered the fray, several generations of loyal fans would be there waiting for him -- as he sang in Boogie Street: I'm wanted at the traffic-jam / They're saving me a seat.
Cohen’s fans know who he is and where he hangs out – including around the post office box business on Larchmont, at the La Brea Bakery, Kantor’s, Etc. Cohen does indeed know how to play the celebrity game and woo the media. That’s why he’s communicating with and meeting with Brian Johnson. Cohen is aware that I reported his tax fraud to Agent Bill Betzer/IRS who advised me on or around April 15, 2005 (after my taxes were paid in full) to report the tax fraud to the IRS Fraud Hotline. Agent Betzer then advised me to bring the tax fraud into the IRS with a lawyer. I ultimately contacted the Fraud Hotline, reported the tax fraud via the internet to the IRS – who sent me a confirmation, and contacted the IRS in Washington, DC (where I spoke to a woman about my contacts with the Fraud Hotline and Agent Betzer/IRS confirmed that this IRS employee called him about the Fraud Hotline and me as well) …
For those fans, Leonard's financial woes may come as a blessing. Now that he's broke, he's had to fan the fire under a career that has been quietly smouldering. He's putting the finishing touches on a long-awaited collection of new poetry, the Book of Longing, which McClelland & Stewart plans to publish in March. He's eager to record a new album in the fall and hopes to tour -- for the first time in 12 years. And when I visited him last month, he played me an unmastered recording of a stunning album of new songs he's produced for his partner and collaborator, Anjani Thomas.
Why is Leonard Cohen broke? If Leonard Cohen is broke why did he stop the multi-million asset deal that he demanded? He testified at my trial that he was “examining” that deal and advised me and Greg McBowman that he wanted these deals because he was concerned about “illegal music downloading.” Greg McBowman and I felt a bond deal was a better way to go but Sony was insistent – they did not want their artist setting this type of precedent. After all, advances are the currency of the music industry and Leonard Cohen’s refusal to hand in contractually obligated studio albums (every 12-24 months) was not his attempt to voluntarily reduce his income. It is due to the fact that he doesn’t like to work, hangs around gossiping and bad-mouthing people, and lives in rarefied air. His work ethic has been handed down to his son and daughter although Cohen has gone to great lengths to support their careers as shop owner and recording artist. Johnson is clear – it took Cohen 12 years to hand in a new studio album. This proves that Cohen’s statements in his lawsuit that he voluntarily reduced his income by going to Mt. Baldy is a lie. The Future was delivered in 1993. Dear Heather in 2004.
Titled Blue Alert, it's a collection of jazz-blues ballads, with Anjani singing Leonard's words and accompanying herself on piano. The project, which Sony will release early next year, originated when she picked up a notebook of his lyrics lying open on the coffee table. Anjani, who began singing backup for Cohen in the '80s, has an exquisite voice. But here she drops her soprano down a notch and sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. With her hypnotic vocals harnessed to his lyrics, Blue Alert's torch songs put her in a league with Diana Krall and Norah Jones. And though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke.
At a certain point, it seemed as though Cohen was using Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas to sing his vocals. He even travelled to Berkeley, CA to meet with people about a digital voice simulator.
Leonard now admits to being strangely happy, although he conceded that being wiped out financially and having your name blackened "is enough to put a dent in your mood." But his chronic depression, which lifted more than a decade ago on Mount Baldy, has not returned. With monastic discipline he gets up at 4 a.m. to write, and clings to the peace of the morning before the lawyers' phone calls and emails break the spell. The last time I saw him, he read me an ancient Eastern scripture that says that, internally, you must be "free of hope and desire," while outwardly you should "do what is to be done." Those years of extravagant meditation on Mount Baldy have not been in vain. When you're broke on Boogie Street, a little Buddhist detachment may prove invaluable.
Leonard Cohen was not “wiped out financially” and his named was not “blackened.” Leonard Cohen’s actions have assailed his reputation. Leonard Cohen was not on Mt. Baldy for years and to witness this man meditating is frightening. In fact, he told me (sometime after LASD rolled by to interview him about his comments to the news media re. Phil Spector) that I am the only person he doesn’t resent or feel thoughts of revenge/retaliation towards while meditating. This was very obvious to me although I would assume now that he is filled with rage towards me and was delighted to see me in handcuffs. As someone recently noted, he would probably prefer seeing me handcuffed in bed but no one has proven that Cohen and I had a “sexual relationship” so hopefully he has video footage – and that would include with respect to his allegations to my younger son’s father that Oliver Stone and I had sex (an issue prosecutor Streeter raised at my “intent to annoy trial”). Oliver Stone and I did not have sex.
To comment, email letters@macleans.ca
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/entertainment/article.jsp?content=20050822_110882_110882
The Canadian music icon is broke and the lawsuits are flying. It's a sordid tale involving allegations of extortion, SWAT teams, forcible confinement, tax troubles and betrayal.
KATHERINE MACKLEM | Aug 17, 2005
I said there's been a flood
I said there's nothing left
-- Leonard Cohen, from The Letters, on his album Dear Heather
Take an iconic artist, mix in missing millions, hints of tantric sex, a lawsuit replete with other salacious details, and a ruptured relationship with a long-time, trusted associate, and you've got the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Except in the case of Leonard Cohen, it's a true tale, with the bizarre twist of a Tibetan Buddhist suing a Zen Buddhist, Cohen. For the 70-year-old poet, singer and songwriter, it's a nasty, rapidly escalating legal battle that on the one hand accuses him of conspiracy and extortion, and on the other has him accusing both his highly trusted personal manager and long-time financial adviser -- the Tibetan Buddhist -- of gross mismanagement of his financial affairs. The case exposes not only private details of Cohen's finances, but also a dramatic tale of betrayal.
The only mention of “tantric sex” in this insanity had to do with Neal Greenberg’s phone call to me about private annuity obligations, Richard Westin’s emails to me, etc. Greenberg advised me at that time that he took classes in tantric sex and I thought it sounded insane. The 14th Sharmapa has addressed why he does not believe the “vajrayana” is appropriate for the west. That would include the fact that “sex is taught as the main core of tantric practice in the West and this does not benefit anyone” but is based on a “big misunderstanding.”
“After observing this movement for 30 years, my conclusion is that Vajrayana is not really suitable for most people in both the West and in Asia, including Tibet. You cannot generalize, of course. There are certainly exceptions, but in most cases it is not suitable. Since sex is taught as the main core of tantric practice in the West and this does not benefit anyone, what is generally practiced as Tantra in the West is based on a big misunderstanding.” 14th Shamarpa
06.07.10
An Answer to a Question Raised about Bodhi Path
Why the Bodhi Path Centers I organized are not Vajrayana?
After observing this movement for 30 years, my conclusion is that Vajrayana is not really suitable for most people in both the West and in Asia, including Tibet. You cannot generalize, of course. There are certainly exceptions, but in most cases it is not suitable. Since sex is taught as the main core of tantric practice in the West and this does not benefit anyone, what is generally practiced as Tantra in the West is based on a big misunderstanding.
I have paid close attention to the kinds of qualities required to ensure the suitability of tantric practice for particular people. It depends on the three factors of cause, condition and effect. The cause: people who have some karmic connection to it. Though one may be in a lower human life, some deep karma is the cause of one's connection to Vajrayana practice. The condition: the conditions conducive to tantric practice are, generally, that one belongs to a society that is in nature quite aggressive and one must be filled with emotions. The effect: though one lives in bad conditions, in other words the afflictions are stronger, at the same time one has strong willpower to struggle against hardships. Therefore tantra was very suitable during the middle ages in Asia. For example, it flourished at a time in India when people became more aggressive and suffered from more afflictions. It also remained suitable until around the 14th century in Tibet and the Himalayas.
I think that nowadays the Bodhisattvayana with a high level of meditation is most suitable for the majority of people. That is why I organized Bodhi Path Centers to combine Atisha's Kadampa lineage with Mahamudra meditation in Gampopa's tradition. There are actually two uses of the term Mahamudra within Gampopa's work: one is tantric and the other is his explanation of the meditation that Buddha taught in the Samadhiraja sutra. We see the latter in the titles of texts he wrote about meditation that are based on the Samadhiraja Sutra. When I use the term Mahamudra here, I am referring to the Mahamudra of the Samadhiraja meditation tradition, not to the tantric Mahamudra.
Bodhi Path Centers are established as learning centers. They are places where you can learn Dharma, learn and practice meditation, and continue to lead a normal life. Bodhi Path is not an organization that enforces compulsory rules of behavior. The moral conduct that we encourage is simply the avoidance of the 10 non-virtues: avoid the physical non-virtues of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the verbal non-virtues of lying, slander, harsh speech and divisive speech; and the mental non-virtues of hatred, desire, and ignorance. In addition to that, practitioners should avoid intoxication and blind faith. Keeping these guidelines of moral conduct is your protection, not a set of laws to be followed for their own sake. You should learn what these non-virtues are and learn to avoid them. The Buddhist view of moral conduct is that it will shield you like strong armor.
In addition to avoiding the 10 non-virtuous actions, intoxication and blind faith, you should learn and implement the attitude of a bodhisattva: bodhicitta. This will help you to accumulate vast amounts of merit. Combine this with learning how to meditate according to the teachings on mindfulness and you will achieve the best results.
In the Buddha's time, becoming a monk or a nun meant full renunciation. Monastics renounced everything. They spent their days and nights in meditation, begged for food from villages and towns, and didn't have so much as a penny. It was especially important for them to keep strict discipline since they had to show themselves to be different from ordinary beggars through their conduct. They had to keep their dignity. In all developed countries these days, both in the West and in Asia, becoming a monk or a nun is no longer the only or best possibility to really implement the teachings. One the one hand, where people pay lots of taxes, insurance, etc. it is not practical to live as a monastic; and on the other hand, in the Tibetan tradition monks and nuns do not in any case keep the full vinaya discipline. It's not that it is impossible to become a monk or nun any more, but I think it is unnecessary unless you can keep the discipline of full ordination which means keeping the 253 vows, etc..
The suitability of particular practices and lifestyles is dependent on the era we live in and the nature of the society we live in. Whatever is the most suitable method for transforming people is the highest yana (vehicle). Likewise, what is suitable for fewer people is the middle yana, and what is suitable for very few people is the lowest or so-called hina-yana. All methods for attaining enlightenment were given by the Buddha, but the one most suitable for your development as it is taught to you by a master is the supreme yana. Therefore the curriculum in my Bodhi Path Centers is based on the suitability for people today. While some Vajrayana practice is of course alright, like Chenrezik practice, for example, for the most part I recommend that practitioners concentrate on avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions, keeping the bodhisattva attitude, and learning the levels of mindfulness.
- Shamarpa
http://www.shamarpa.org/index.php?id=6&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=44&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=1&cHash=7328c057b3I have paid close attention to the kinds of qualities required to ensure the suitability of tantric practice for particular people. It depends on the three factors of cause, condition and effect. The cause: people who have some karmic connection to it. Though one may be in a lower human life, some deep karma is the cause of one's connection to Vajrayana practice. The condition: the conditions conducive to tantric practice are, generally, that one belongs to a society that is in nature quite aggressive and one must be filled with emotions. The effect: though one lives in bad conditions, in other words the afflictions are stronger, at the same time one has strong willpower to struggle against hardships. Therefore tantra was very suitable during the middle ages in Asia. For example, it flourished at a time in India when people became more aggressive and suffered from more afflictions. It also remained suitable until around the 14th century in Tibet and the Himalayas.
I think that nowadays the Bodhisattvayana with a high level of meditation is most suitable for the majority of people. That is why I organized Bodhi Path Centers to combine Atisha's Kadampa lineage with Mahamudra meditation in Gampopa's tradition. There are actually two uses of the term Mahamudra within Gampopa's work: one is tantric and the other is his explanation of the meditation that Buddha taught in the Samadhiraja sutra. We see the latter in the titles of texts he wrote about meditation that are based on the Samadhiraja Sutra. When I use the term Mahamudra here, I am referring to the Mahamudra of the Samadhiraja meditation tradition, not to the tantric Mahamudra.
Bodhi Path Centers are established as learning centers. They are places where you can learn Dharma, learn and practice meditation, and continue to lead a normal life. Bodhi Path is not an organization that enforces compulsory rules of behavior. The moral conduct that we encourage is simply the avoidance of the 10 non-virtues: avoid the physical non-virtues of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the verbal non-virtues of lying, slander, harsh speech and divisive speech; and the mental non-virtues of hatred, desire, and ignorance. In addition to that, practitioners should avoid intoxication and blind faith. Keeping these guidelines of moral conduct is your protection, not a set of laws to be followed for their own sake. You should learn what these non-virtues are and learn to avoid them. The Buddhist view of moral conduct is that it will shield you like strong armor.
In addition to avoiding the 10 non-virtuous actions, intoxication and blind faith, you should learn and implement the attitude of a bodhisattva: bodhicitta. This will help you to accumulate vast amounts of merit. Combine this with learning how to meditate according to the teachings on mindfulness and you will achieve the best results.
In the Buddha's time, becoming a monk or a nun meant full renunciation. Monastics renounced everything. They spent their days and nights in meditation, begged for food from villages and towns, and didn't have so much as a penny. It was especially important for them to keep strict discipline since they had to show themselves to be different from ordinary beggars through their conduct. They had to keep their dignity. In all developed countries these days, both in the West and in Asia, becoming a monk or a nun is no longer the only or best possibility to really implement the teachings. One the one hand, where people pay lots of taxes, insurance, etc. it is not practical to live as a monastic; and on the other hand, in the Tibetan tradition monks and nuns do not in any case keep the full vinaya discipline. It's not that it is impossible to become a monk or nun any more, but I think it is unnecessary unless you can keep the discipline of full ordination which means keeping the 253 vows, etc..
The suitability of particular practices and lifestyles is dependent on the era we live in and the nature of the society we live in. Whatever is the most suitable method for transforming people is the highest yana (vehicle). Likewise, what is suitable for fewer people is the middle yana, and what is suitable for very few people is the lowest or so-called hina-yana. All methods for attaining enlightenment were given by the Buddha, but the one most suitable for your development as it is taught to you by a master is the supreme yana. Therefore the curriculum in my Bodhi Path Centers is based on the suitability for people today. While some Vajrayana practice is of course alright, like Chenrezik practice, for example, for the most part I recommend that practitioners concentrate on avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions, keeping the bodhisattva attitude, and learning the levels of mindfulness.
- Shamarpa
The conflict, which Cohen and others have tried to keep out of public view, has left him virtually broke -- he's had to take out a mortgage on his house to pay legal costs -- and facing a multi-million-dollar tax bill. But the artist, who is soon to release a new album with his collaborator -- and current girlfriend -- Anjani Thomas, is today remarkably calm about the potentially embarrassing conflict. Still, when he discovered last fall that his retirement funds, which he had thought amounted to more than $5 million(all figures U.S.), had been reduced to $150,000, he wasn't so sanguine. "I was devastated," Cohen says. "You know, God gave me a strong inner core, so I wasn't shattered. But I was deeply concerned."
I believe Cohen wanted to keep the “conflict” from public view – including via meditations that I felt might produce “insurance fraud” with respect to Neal Greenberg or Richard Westin’s insurance companies because I absolutely believe Leonard Cohen, Neal Greenberg, Richard Westin, and others, created this conflict and that’s precisely why I decided to report the tax fraud to the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and others. I have spoken with Rob Watts/State of Kentucky’s Fraud Unit and Doug Davis/Franchise Tax Board. The prosecutor in the “intent to annoy” trial lied about the assets owned by Traditional Holdings, LLC. She understood, after questioning me, that there is evidence in the Bay Area that was concealed from the court and my jurors. She presposterously advised the jurors that this is the “unraveling of a con” and alleged that the IRS matter was nothing more than a ruse to contact Leonard Cohen. She belittled me, matters, advised the jurors that no one knows what 1099s or K-1s are (and may have said that people do not know what the IRS and FTB are), and yet LAPD’s report states that my alleged emails are generally requests for tax information. ATTACH LAPD’S REPORT. I have been representing myself through all these matters. The judge in the Boulder matter stated, for the record, that they frequently deal with pro per individuals. LAPD’s report notes that Kory refused to speak to me. I asked Phil Boche (representing me in the absurd “progress hearings” that include outrageous allegations that I have mental health issues and alcohol problems but Judge Vanderet appeared convinced that I am the guilty party which should be addressed in my appeal) to ask the judge to whom I should go to request a 1099, ask that the illegal K1s be rescinded, and request a full and complete accounting that is not an expense ledger. Leonard Cohen testified at the “intent to annoy” trial that the income from “Dear Heather’ appears on the expense ledger. No assets, valuations, corporate ownership interests, or income appears on the expense ledger and I have no access to royalty statements – dating back to 1967 – with which to create a full and proper accounting that also addresses Leonard Cohen’s loans, monies he owes me personally – including for commissions – or expenses I encountered with respect to him. That would include, but is not limited to, rent at Stranger Management because my office was over-run with this man’s files, archives, etc. I had to store documents for him, as a courtesy, and this evidently led to a companion matter that I am wholly in the dark about – except for the fact that LASD entered my home and seized documents, including partnership documents as noted on their very shabby inventory form. Leonard Cohen had an obligation (knowing that I had an office in my home – and I, not Leonard Cohen, determined where I would work … my office or my home office) to contact me and make arrangements to have his so-called documents, etc., picked up. LASD is not a moving van for a greedy, lying, fraud songwriter who lies through his teeth and should be prosecuted for his perjury and held accountable for the fact that I was sent to jail and Phil Spector was convicted by a Grand Jury and ultimately ended up in prison based on “prior bad acts.” I was not in a “dating relationship” with Leonard Cohen, there is no domestic violence, but this man has a pattern of lying, embellishing stories, concealing facts and evidence, and perjuring himself in any court of law he rolls into. I personally believe ICE should investigate why he abandoned a green card in 1988 and then re-obtained one in 1991 or 1992. Where did Leonard Cohen pay taxes between 1998 and 1991 or 1992? My former brother-in-law, Van Penick, wrote me a letter as his sister-in-law about Cohen’s residence/tax issues in Canada and personally advised me (with Cohen sitting next to me) that there’s no good news in Canada either. Cohen was advised, at that time, to suspend his temple membership, close his bank accounts, sell his residences, and address all residency ties to Canada. He did not. In 1977, he was advised that he did not have to pay taxes in any country where he had residences (the U.S., Canada, and Greece were mentioned) and cautioned him not to have a green card. He clearly ignored that caution and one can safely assume that he abandoned his green card after Marty Machat’s death in 1988 so that he could blame a man who is no longer able to defend himself. Leonard Cohen withheld commissions due Machat & Machat for work they did leading to his album “I’m Your Man” and the tour that insued, probably other royalty commissions, and sold “Stranger Music, Inc.” to Sony without advising any of us that Machat & Machat owned 15% of that entity and the assets (ie., intellectual property). I uncovered evidence, after Cohen and I parted ways in October 2004). That evidence was a letter from Marty Machat/Machat & Machat to Carter/Irving Trust transmitting Machat & Machat’s check for $30,000.00 representing their 15% interest in Stranger Music, Inc. The letter also seemed to indicate that record producer Bob Johnston also owned 15% of Stranger Music, Inc. Bob Johnston will have to speak for himself about that issue.
So far, only one formal court filing involving Cohen has been made. In June, Boulder, Colo.-based Neal Greenberg, Cohen's investment adviser of almost a decade, launched a hyperbole-laden claim in Colorado against Cohen, who lives in both Los Angeles and Montreal. The suit accuses Kelley Lynch, who was Cohen's manager and is also named in the suit, of siphoning money from the songwriter. It also accuses Cohen and his lawyer Robert Kory of conspiracy, extortion and defamation. It alleges the two, in an attempt to recover at least some of Cohen's lost money, threatened to besmirch Greenberg's reputation and concocted a plan to force Greenberg to give Cohen millions of dollars.
Norman Posel/Boies Schiller used me horrendously to obtain information that would benefit his client, Neal Greenberg. Posel was my Buddhist teacher’s translator and His Holiness Kusum Lingpa asked him to provide me with the evidence that Cohen intended to silence and terrify me. Boies Schiller did provide me with an email stating that Cohen/Kory intended to destroy me and my children. I tend to doubt they were going to destroy my children legally although they have both been targeted. Ray – custody matter. Rutger – sign over house; Cohen’s testimony Rutger’s Whole Foods matter. I provided Boies Schiller with three huge boxes of evidence (including the Machat & Machat letter; minutes prepared by Westin confirming that Cohen’s level of borrowing from TH was “dangerous” to the structure; etc.) and they wrote me that Cohen was attempting to blame me for his wrongdoing; advised me to sue him for fraud, concealment, intentional torts, and whatever it means to destroy someone’s life legally (it’s more than an “intent to annoy,” I would presume by I am not a lying prosecutor whose name is Sandra Jo Streeter, a woman’s whose conduct I have reported to a supervisor at the City Attorney’s office – Will Revera – and advised the IRS, FBI, DOJ, Treasury, FTB, and others that she clearly attempted to sabotage the IRS matters, my future litigation issues, and preserve Cohen’s credibility although that might be difficult now that there are two Leonard Cohen/Phil Spector good rock ‘n roll gun stories before LA Superior Court). Boies Schiller understood Cohen owed me millions and told me to find a lawyer who wanted to help me take down another “Hollywood fraud.” I siphoned no money from anywhere. I was added to the Greenberg lawsuit re. inter-pleaded funds totaling $150,000.00 which in no way addresses the assets that prosecutor Sandra Jo Streeter lied to my jurors about in the “intent to annoy” matter. This woman lied to the bail judge, lied extensively to the court and my jurors, pranced around in truly disturbing skin tight outfits – that wrapped her rolls of fat in spandex, was gushing on her cell phone about “celebrity” Leonard Cohen, baby talked the judge, broke the podium, and something else, etc. She is unconscionably aggressive and she is a bald-faced liar who may have had motive – perhaps she could advance her shameless career with celebrity Leonard Cohen while entertaining the DA’s investigator in the courtroom with Cohen, his lawyers and PI, who my lawyer advised me was seen LUNCHING with Leonard Cohen. This led me to believe that I truly was in LA Confidential and not a Hollywood movie. The assets of TH and BMT are not Cohen’s “lost money” and this again raises issue related to “alter ego” and “self-dealing.” I heard, from my lawyers, that Kory advised them (in a meeting where I was discussed for 7 minutes while Greenberg and Westin were discussed for three hours) that Cohen intended to go on Oprah and blow the whistle on Greenberg and Westin. Kory personally told me (at a meeting he testified about and which Boies Schiller advised me to have Investigator Brian Bennett/DA’s office wire me because Cohen and Kory were attempting to engage me in criminal conduct and they assured me that recording them would not be a set up) that there is fraud on all entities; I have a lawsuit against every one of Cohen’s advisers; and, the holding periods re. the intellectual property assignments to various entities are illegal. He also confirmed that he was speaking with Betsy Superfon, a woman who I was told was attempting to negotiating a settlement between me and Cohen without my knowledge, understanding and awareness. She recently advised me that Cohen’s informant was Julie Isenberg whose father, Joel Isenberg, was Superfon’s partner – they were audited by the IRS when they had a sex phone line and apparently understand that the last thing anyone wants to deal with is a major IRS audit that includes the seizing of documents, hidden assets, etc. In fact, Superfon advised me that Joel Isenberg his $90-100 million belonging to her and told her he was visiting it in a Swiss bank. Address Cohen’s Swiss bank account, off-shore accounts, green cards, numerous social security numbers, etc. Superfon told me Julie Isenberg (who worked for me one week in August 2004) was jealous of me. Cohen refers to her, in his legal filings before this court, as my staff employee. This woman could not pack a greeting card order let alone undertake to read corporate books records, review accountings, investment statements, etc. It is absurd. Superfon also advised me that Julie Isenberg assaulted her maid, stole her jewelry and dogs, stole a file, moved to Las Vegas and was a stripper with a serious drug problem. After this incident, Superfon told me that Joel Isenberg threatened to advise law enforcement that she ran a brothel which is not anything I ever witnessed. I personally spoke to Joel Isenberg, in 2005, with Superfon present. I advised him that his daughter inserted herself in very serious criminal tax fraud relating to Leonard Cohen. Yongzin Rinpoche and his wife visited me in the spring of 2005 and he advised me to invite Superfon over to visit with us. I did. At that time, we discussed her conversations with Cohen and Kory, the role Greenberg played in this matter, and other issues. I then authorized Superfon to speak directly to Kory about the type of deal Cohen was interested in. Superfon advised me that Cohen felt remorseful, terrified, and told her that I was the “love of his life” which sounds deranged and reminds me of all his other bald-faced lies including at my bail hearing where he told the judge we only had a business relationship. This perjury was addressed at my “intent to annoy” trial. Superfon spoke with Kory and was advised tha the type of deal they had in mind could not be faxed through to me. When I asked her “Why?” she answered that the type of deal they had in mind was “illegal.” Kory asked Superfon to arrange a luncheon between the three of us. The rest is now history although I never agreed to the lunch. Custody matter – coordinated. SWAT incident. Killer King – Phil Spector. Etc. S&MPD and Boulder PD – Cohen/Kory contacted them. Viramontes/LAPD has now contacted Agent Tejeda/IRS, told me he left a message, advised me he took my statement and would send a copy of the updated report by fax to Agent Tejeda/IRS and email a copy to Agent Sopko/Treasury, and advised me that the IRS is obligated to obtain the 1099 I need for the year 2004, must rescind the illegal K-1s, and must provide a copy of the accounting, etc., that I have attempted to request from Cohen and his advisers for a number of years now. ATTACH MICHELLE RICE’S TWO FEBRUARY 14, 2011 EMAILS.
It also accuses Cohen and his lawyer Robert Kory of conspiracy,extortion and defamation. It alleges the two, in an attempt to recover at least some of Cohen's lost money, threatened to besmirch Greenberg's reputation and concocted a plan to force Greenberg to give Cohen millions of dollars.
I personally believe Cohen and Kory were in a conspiracy, obviously, with other parties and was confused about Kory’s testimony at my “intent to annoy” trial that two people must be involved in a conspiracy. It made me wonder if I was witnessing a legal conspiracy with respect to Cohen, Kory, Rice, prosecutor Sandra Jo Streeter, and the District Attorney of Los Angeles. My lawyers, at that time, felt that Streeter attempted to sabotage an IRS matter, should be investigated and prosecuted by the IRS, and advised me – this is a direct quote – that the “DA does not want the Phil Spector verdict overturned.” That’s their problem. Did Greenberg give Cohen millions of dollars? It is bizarre that he was not named as a party to Cohen’s lawsuit – although Scott Edelman publicly announced that they planed to file suit against Neal Greenberg. It is my personal opinion that this matter and Neal Greenberg’s lawsuit (filed in the Denver federal court) were orchestrated and are evidenve of obfuscation, obstruction of justice, concealment, fraud, perjury, etc. I am entitled to transcripts of the settlement negotiations between Cohen and Westin. These mediations were addressed at my “intent to annoy” trial. I am entitled to know the details of the settlement between Cohen and Westin. This has all been concealed from me.
The suit paints an almost preposterous picture of Cohen as an artist who led a lavish celebrity lifestyle and then turned bitter and vindictive when he discovered the money had run out. For example, the suit quotes Lynch describing how Cohen demanded she discuss business matters while he soaked in a bubble bath, and how later he was somehow involved in calling a SWAT team to her home, where she was handcuffed and forcibly taken to a psychiatric ward while in her bathing suit.
I have addressed Cohen’s “lavish” lifestyle. Leonard Cohen turned hysterical, vicious, malicious, vindictive, vengeful, etc. when he HEARD I was going to the IRS, received a notice from the IRS re. my 2001 tax returns (re. Traditional Holdings, LLC), switched accountants, was advised on various corporate issues, and could not be backed into various deals – including being offered 50% community property in a meeting where $10,000/month walking around money was raised. I later heard that there was some discussion about $2,000/month walking around for my parents. Dale Burgess, my account (who did not “resign” as Cohen testified at my “intent to annoy” trial but rather completed the work he was hired to do – assist me with my tax returns, see to it that Cleveland completed my 2003 tax return, and instruct me on precisely what I owed to the IRS: Burgess noted that I have a carry back), advised me – after I met with Agent Sopko and her partner from the U.S. Treasury – to let the IRS and Treasury know that he recalled my being offered 50% community property and asked me to inform the IRS and Treasury that my lawyers understood that Cohen’s tax fraud was criminal in nature. I know this for a fact because, in our last meeting (where Blue Mist Touring was discussed – my lawyers told me I was entitled to the IP regardless of where Cohen and his advisers transferred it) my lawyers at DiMascio & Berardo personally advised me that Cohen’s tax fraud was criminal, he exposed me to that tax fraud – unwittingly (acknowledged that all facts prove that I tried repeatedly to determine what was going on), and told me they were planning to figure in a settlement amount for my exposure to criminal tax fraud. Cohen lied that I fired all my attorneys and that would include Mike Taitelman (pawn vs. orchestrated – Kory), Bert Deixler (discussed loans with Kory and spoke to DiMascio), and Zia Modabber.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. Cohen is expected to file a countersuit this week. More lawsuits are likely to join the fray. And Lynch, who has sent turgid, raw and wrathful emails hither and yon, is threatening to sue just about everyone.
This is correct. Cohen preferred bankrupting me and using absolutely unconscionable tactics against me. More lawsuits are absolutely likely to follow. I’m not threatening to sue anyone. I have absolutely asked Phil Spector to join me in a lawsuit against the District Attorney of Los Angeles and was clear at my trial – I believe Steve Cooley needs to be investigated; have repeatedly contacted the FBI about the DA’s official misconduct; and absolutely believe Leonard Cohen and his advisers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have no idea why Judge Robert Vanderet, in my “intent to annoy” trial, decided to conceal the testimony of Agent Tejeda/IRS (who was meeting with IRS attorneys to determine what he could testify about) from my jurors – but I know this: the nearly $700,000.00 refund Cohen obtained from the IRS falsely accusing me of misappropriating funds is being contested and I can assure this court that Agent Tejeda/IRS knows this – as do the agency’s who are copied in on my emails documenting the destruction of my life since Cohen heard I was going to the IRS. That would include the IRS Commissioner’s Staff, FBI, DOJ, Agent Sopko/Treasury, Doug Davis, FTB, and it also includes Dennis Riordan, Phil Spector’s appellate counsel who Cohen testified he saw copied in on my emails. He was also asked if he saw the IRS copied in. Perhaps that’s why he is paranoid. After all, my lawyers calculated what Cohen owes the IRS – on one entity alone (TH) – should this be brought to the attention of the IRS. The penalties and interest, as of 2004, totaled approximately $10 million and I was told that there are similar penalties and interest with respect to BMT and LCI. That does not address Old Ideas, LLC. Cohen’s tax lawyer advised me, after forming Old Ideas, LLC (re. “Dear Heather” publishing), that he believed I was entitled to 15% ownership interest in that entity. He was correct and he clearly understood my ownership interest in Cohen’s publishing, etc.
The conflict was triggered last fall when Cohen was tipped off by an insider that a lot of money was missing from his accounts. All that remained of his retirement savings was the $150,000, funds that today he can't get at as a result of the tangled legal web he finds himself in. Greenberg's suit portrays the soulful songwriter as an artist who paid little attention to his financial affairs and so was easily duped by a conniving personal manager. Cohen says he tried quietly, and confidentially, to find out from his various managers where the money had gone. Cohen calls the case "a tragedy," suggesting he was exploited by trusted advisers. He uses words like "greed, concealment, and reckless disregard," and says firmly he did nothing wrong. "I can assure you, within reason, I took every precaution except to question the fidelity of my closest associates."
Julie Isenberg did NOT tip Cohen off that “a lot of money was missing from his accounts” and that allegation is farcical. I advised Judge Louis Babcock that this matter was nothing other than a tax matter related to Leonard Cohen’s criminal tax fraud that I believed Greenberg and Westin helped Cohen create – for the express purpose of avoiding taxes – and I ultimately advised Babcock to send the $150,000.00 to Leonard Cohen. After all, Boies Schiller advised me in 2005 that Leonard Cohen was actually going to prove that he personally committed tax fraud and participated in that. He has also successfully proven, from my perspective, that he engaged in self-dealing and views himself as the “alter ego” of these aptly named “corporate fictions” that are sham/shell entities. They remind Cohen’s accountant, Ken Cleveland, of Enron. Cohen wasn’t “duped” by his personal manager but it is important to note that Brian Johnson/MacLean’s, the NY Times, and Bob Hilburn/LA Times all understood (after speaking to Cohen) that I was his personal manager. Leonard Cohen sounds like he’s hung around with too many lawyers and investigators. He uses words like “greed, concealment and reckless disregard” and also believes there was “implied malice” in a Dallas FBI investigation that involved the brother and uncle of a man I met while homeless in Santa Monica. That matter relates to an unconscionable family involved with meth production, meth cooking, meth labs, the Aryan Nation, and the Cartel. It in no way whatsoever indicates “implied malice” towards Leonard Cohen but either proves that he is a bald-faced liar with motive or is delusional and his long history of psychiatric problems, drug and alcohol abuse, and lying have finally taken a toll on this lying fraud who has a habit of stealing and has no ethics, morals, or religious beliefs – at all – from what I can tell. I think Cohen was startled by this so-called trusted adviser’s activity – going to the IRS. He underestimated me and my fidelity. I have no allegiance, at all, to criminal conduct or a man that would play a role in the conviction and imprisonment of my dear friend, Phil Spector. I spoke with Wendy/Judge Larry Fidler’s clerk today. She advised me to call the DA’s office re. the two gun stories re. Phil Spector/Leonard Cohen before LA Superior Court. I have called the DA’s office. I have been threatened by that office – after I was told that I was probably a witness in the Phil Spector matter in 2007. I am most certainly not a witness and advised them (after consulting with my attorney in Colorado, David Moorhead) that I would take the 5th Amendment if they dared put me on the witness stand and would advise the judge that their conduct towards me was nothing other than thuggery. Captain Jack Horvath, DA’s personal security detail, LIED to the court when he wrote and said I contacted them in 2007. That’s a bald faced lie with a man who clearly has motive – Investigator Brian Bennett rolled by my house in 2005 to question me about Phil Spector after the DA’s office received an anonymous tip about my friendship with Phil Spector. The DA’s office appears to have caller ID but Bennett told me this tip came from a woman. As for the SWAT incident … I’ll leave the last word for my African Grey parrot who has been stolen by Doug ? – when he saw LAPD enter my house, after lying to my son that I had a hostage, etc. he told the sergeant that he “saw dead people.” He’s very fortunate he wasn’t arrested for criminal threats and hauled out in tiny handcuffs, based on what I have seen in this LA Confidential situation. Did LAPD think my bikini was the high-powered weapon? That remains to be seen.
Until Cohen fired her last fall, Kelley Lynch had been his personal manager for almost 17 years.
Brian Johnson is correct. I was Cohen’s personal manager for approximately 17 years.
Back in 1988, she'd been working as an assistant to his then-manager, who died that year. Because she was knowledgeable about Cohen's business affairs and recording contracts, he had her take over. Over the years, the two developed a personal and professional relationship. Fifteen years ago, they had a brief affair. "It was a casual sexual arrangement. It was mutually enjoyed and terminated," he says. "I never spent the night." The end of the affair didn't affect their bond. "We were very, very close friends," Cohen says today.
Cohen advised Johnston that 15 years ago we had a brief affair, a “casual sexual arrangement.” Leonard Cohen is saying that in 1990 I had a casual sexual affair with him but I was involved with Steven Clark Lindsey and had his son in 1992. Leonard Cohen is a bald-faced liar with motive and I believe he was involved with DeMornay at this time. When he broke up with her in 1994, he told me he broke up with her because of me. Who knows what this man actually thinks and frankly – who cares. He lies as easily as he breaths. Leonard Cohen is going to prove that we had a “casual sexual arrangement.” Were we very, very close friends? I don’t think so. I don’t believe this man is close to anyone. Did he like me immensely? Were our families close – then why has he falsely accused my parents and sister of activity they haven’t engaged in? … Helpful while raising his daughter? I see. Who cares if he named me in documents. We did indeed correspond relentlessly and he testified that we spoke daily so it’s nearly impossible to believe (and I know it’s not true) that this man was in the dark about anything. He is an absolute micro-manager. I refused to eat lunch with Cohen, Thomas, Robinson, and Ungar. I was listening to Cohen and Thomas badmouth Robinson and Ungar relentlessly and found it unconscionably deranged. Leonard Cohen is a relentless gossip who badmouths nearly everyone in his life.
"I liked her immensely. Our families were close -- she was helpful when I was raising my daughter; I employed her father." He even named her in his living will, giving her the power to decide, in certain circumstances, if he would live or die. He handed her vast powers of attorney. He trusted her implicitly. And he believed the relationship was mutual. "She wrote dozens of emails to me, thanking me for my help. We used to correspond regularly, relentlessly." He says that in 2004, while he was recording his most recent album, Dear Heather, with a small team at his home-recording studio, Lynch would come by almost daily. "People were very tight. Kelley was taking care of business, I was producing the album. It was all taking place in this little duplex and the garage that was converted into a studio. Kelley would come over, and I would generally prepare lunch for everyone."
The cosy arrangement was shattered one day last October when a young man, the boyfriend of a casual employee of Lynch, spoke to Cohen's daughter, Lorca, who owns an art deco furniture store and who lives downstairs from her father in the L.A. duplex he owns. "Your father really ought to look into his accounts, because he might be surprised at what he finds," he said. Lorca told him that her father trusted everyone involved and that besides, "he's about to retire, anyway." As Cohen senior tells the story, the young man replied, "He won't be able to retire."
The young man, the boyfriend of a casual employee of Lynch is evidently (according to Superfon who knows here) Julie Isenberg who may be doing drugs and stripping in Las Vegas. Should Lorca Cohen’s father look into his “accounts.” That sounds like Leonard Cohen and so does the word “informant.” Leonard Cohen likes to embellish stories – see his various accounts of his role in the Bay of Pigs, Yom Kippur War, and – of course – the Phil Spector alleged gun stories.
Alarmed, Lorca called her father, who was in Montreal. Within a couple of days, he returned to Los Angeles and immediately went to his bank.
This is not what happened – at all – and I was there. Leonard Cohen flew in hysterical and we discussed the fact that he heard I was going to the IRS. At that time, Cohen offered me anything I wanted and advised me that he wanted the corporate books and records that I took home and then handed over to my lawyers. He wanted me to meet with Richard Westin (his tax lawyer who was flying in) to unravel their handiwork on these entities. He, Richard Westin, and Neal Greenberg were absolutely hysterical and I believe that each have motive to be hysterical about the IRS. The State of Kentucky felt the IRS would go back and audit Cohen from the date he first obtained a green card which I believe would be in the late 60s or early 70s. They told me the cumulative interest would be impossible for Cohen to climb out of. Cohen did NOT immediately go to the bank.
There he discovered, as he puts it, "improprieties." Lynch had linked her American Express bill directly to his personal chequing account, he says, and just days before his visit to the bank, he'd paid a $75,000 Amex bill on her behalf.
Leonard Cohen most certainly did NOT pay a $75,000 American Express bill on my behalf. My American Express account was NOT directly linked to his personal checking account.
He never learned what purchases the card had been used for, but says the credit card company reimbursed him.
If the credit card company reimbursed him for these so-called monies (without telling him what “purchases the card had been used for – which sounds like sheer lunacy) then Cohen should be charged with fraud and theft.
Cohen immediately removed Lynch's signing powers on the accounts. The next day, Cohen told Lynch she no longer had access to the bank accounts and he fired her. That afternoon, Cohen says the bank notified him that Lynch went to a different branch and attempted to withdraw $40,000 from one of his accounts. He then called a lawyer and brought in a forensic accounting firm, Moss-Adams, which, in an investigation of all of Cohen's holdings, discovered "massive improprieties." In all, the accountants discovered about $8.4 million had over time disappeared from his holdings, Cohen says. His retirement funds had been virtually depleted.
Leonard Cohen’s a good fiction writer. This story is a bald-faced lie. Michelle Rice advised Viramontes/LAPD that she was representing Cohen since the beginning of 2004 which is really quite sinister. Kevin Prins flew to San Francisco to meet with Dale Burgess … See Dale Burgess fax. The IRS has to undertake an accounting and audit to address the assets, valuations, corporate ownership interests, expenses, loans, etc. Leonard Cohen will say anything and the news media is really quite complicit in his masterful manipulations of them, various courts, judges, law enforcement, etc. WHAT retirement account? The one that he believes he is the alter ego of – Traditional Holdings, LLC?
Neal Greenberg, a banker with a thriving investment firm, had been brought in by Lynch to manage Cohen's money in 1996, two years after Cohen went up Mount Baldy to study to be a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk. But now, he was worried. Over two decades, Greenberg had built a successful company, the Agile Group, and managed more than half-a-billion dollars of other people's money. He enjoyed, as he says in his suit, a "spotless professional reputation." And suddenly, here was Leonard Cohen, not just a prized client but one with a high profile, suggesting that Greenberg was party to the disappearance of Cohen's retirement savings.
Neal Greenberg was NOT brought in by Lynch. Lynch met with CNB, an investment firm recommended by Peter Lopez (NOTE – Cohen defrauded Peter of $90,000), etc. and felt Greenberg was churning, mingling assets on statements – and she demanded that he provide separate statements for each account, etc. Greenberg is no longer a successful investor. Attach information re. SEC. Neal Greenberg did NOT enjoy a “spotless professional reputation” and many people wonder why this so-called Buddhist is not in prison. In fact, I last heard – from a mutual friend of ours – that he moved to Montreal, Quebec and stashed millions of dollars in off-shore accounts. I have brought that allegation to the attention of the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and it should most definitely be investigated.
Over the years, he says, he warned Cohen that his funds were being rapidly depleted, but it seemed the artist paid no heed. And now, Cohen and his lawyer, Kory, claims the Greenberg suit, were threatening "that Cohen would go out on tour to promote his new album and give interviews to reporters in which he would insinuate that he was touring because he had been bankrupted by improprieties by Greenberg and other financial advisers." Greenberg must have envisioned his business and his career in absolute tatters. He sued.
Leonard Cohen did NOT want Greenberg to know about his other income sources and future income. This may have lead to Greenberg’s concern about dwindling finances. Leonard Cohen planned to tour behind “Dear Heather,” was looking at a multi-million deal with Sony/ATV, understood the $4 million lithograph deal I was negotiating, and had just received a $1 million advance for “Dear Heather” in August/September 2004 and advised me NOT to tell Greenberg about that deposit because he no longer trusted him. I never trusted Greenberg. Cohen and Kory were, according to my lawyers, planning to advise the news media that Greenberg and Westin were responsible for the outrageous situation that has now caught up with him. I suppose they changed their mind once Westin settled and Greenberg’s lawsuit was basically brought to an end by Judge Babcock. Greenberg evidently had good reason to envision his company and career in absolute tatters.
Greenberg's lawsuit lays out the business background to the dispute. Cohen's success as a singer and songwriter generated millions in royalties, the suit says, and in the 1990s, Lynch, as Cohen's trusted personal manager, began to investigate auctioning his intellectual properties, including copyrights to his song catalogue and continuing royalties for his songs. Lynch, along with a tax consultant named Richard Westin, arranged two deals for Cohen's properties. The transactions were eventually completed, one in 1997, the other in 2001, with Sony Music. From the first sale, about $5 million was transferred to trusts that Greenberg had been enlisted to manage and that would protect Cohen from an upfront tax hit. Greenberg says he invested the proceeds wisely, making lots of money for the trusts. But Greenberg also claims that Cohen's "consistent and prolific spending" to support "his extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle" eroded the gains he had made on his client's behalf.
In 1994, Cohen advised me to approach Eric Kronfeld (Marty Machat and Allen Klein’s former partner and the CEO of Polygram at the time – who were buying publishing assets) about selling intellectual property, including copyrights to the song catalogue, continuing royalties, and record contracts. The IRS Commissioner’s Staff should investigate how personal service contracts were sold as intellectual property. Ed Dean, Cohen’s lawyer, was concerned about assigning personal service contracts to the two charitable remainder trusts. He also advised me that I was Cohen’s worse nightmare and felt the IRS Commissioner’s Staff should or would come in after not only Cohen but his lawyers and accountants as well. Burt Goldstein, Cohen’s former accountant, was astounded to hear that I had contacted the IRS Commissioner’s Staff (and received confirmation from Agent Sopko/Treasury that they were reading my emails and various individuals were handling various aspects of this entirely complex matter) and asked me if I would be a witness for him – with respect to the fact that he was asked, by Cohen after Marty Machat’s death, to unravel the insanity surrounding Cohen’s numerous social security numbers. I absolutely intend to be a witness for Burt Goldstein because I know what Cohen told him and me about that confusion. I worked with Peter Shukat and Jonas Herbsman on the first sale of assets in 1996. Cohen was furious and felt gypped although he agreed to the sale and was upset that Sony stepped in and exercised their matching rights – something Cohen is entirely clear about. Richard Westin and Neal Greenberg handled the tax, financial, and accounting aspects of that 1996 deal and Peter Shukat and Jonas Herbsman (who were shocked when Cohen called him and lied about me) were transaction attorneys. Peter Lopez then helped negotiate (and did an extraordinary job, I might add) the CAK bond deal. Peter has since died and his assistant, Christian, advised me that Cohen never paid Peter Lopez the $90,000.00 he was owed for all his hard work. Cohen hates to pay his advisers and if he sees a way out he will take that route. As Steven Machat said – Cohen should have paid us our share of the intellectual property. That is true understatement but this man has a pattern of falsely accusing his advisers and theft. SEE STEVEN MACHAT AND KELLEY LYNCH CONVERSATION. Arthur Indurky, another gentleman, Leonard Cohen, and I met at the Peninsula Hotel when Cohen decided to fire Peter Lopez after Charles Koppelman/CAK sued him over issues related to that failed deal. Cohen asked Arthur Indursky to represent him and his allegations (that I testified about in my “intent to annoy trial”) that Arthur Indurksy, the Grubman/Indursky firm, or Greg McBowman committed “fraud in the inducement” – ATTACH THE EVIDENCE I HAVE – is positively outrageous and laughable. Cohen demanded these deals. Greenberg did NOT invest well and has now lost everything he invested for his clients. ATTACH ARTICLES. The IRS Commissioner’s Staff, on an accounting, should address all fees and commissions paid Greenberg for his investment strategies re. TH.
The second sale of Cohen's intellectual property, in 2001, was for $8 million. With Westin, Lynch put that money into a newly formed company named Traditional Holdings LLC that also was intended to shield Cohen's earnings from a major tax hit. Lynch was named as owner of 99.5 per cent of the company, leaving Cohen holding just 0.5 per cent. Greenberg alleges that Cohen, well aware of the structure and its dangers, signed off on it. Westin had explained to Cohen, the suit says, that "the plan would only work if Cohen and Lynch maintained (as they had in the past)a long-term relationship of personal and professional trust." Traditional Holdings could also issue loans to its owners, Lynch and Cohen.
The second sale was actually $6.3 million and there are recoupment amounts that need to be reviewed by the IRS Commissioner’s Staff because I heard, in hindsight, that they are problematic. I put nothing whatsoever in Traditional Holdings and NOTHING was assigned to TH. I agree – all of this activity was intended to shield Cohen from a MAJOR TAX HIT and this goes to motive. Cohen, after receiving the first suggested ideas for TH, and I wrote Westin because Cohen did NOT want his children named as beneficiaries. No trust was ever created. I have no idea why and could care less. I would assume it’s due to the fact that TH would be rolled by into LCI and this was never intended to pay out an annuity obligation, obviously. Westin’s correct – the plan would only work if we maintained a relationship of personal and professional trust. None exists. I could not understand this type of structure, the annuity obligation or how an annuity was assigned to this entity (without the IP being actually paid for since it was in another entity), an investment strategy that involved a promissory note, etc. and therefore I asked Leonard Cohen for an Indemnity Agreement. I received one. It has been signed and it also pays my legal fees.
As soon as the new company was in place, "Greenberg was immediately alarmed by Cohen's desire and tendency to treat this company [Traditional Holdings] like his personal piggy bank," the lawsuit alleges. It goes on to claim Cohen took a $1-million advance on the second sale of assets to Sony, Lynch took a commission of $1.1 million, and fees for lawyers and accountants ate up another $714,000. And then, over the next few years, Lynch regularly borrowed money from the Traditional Holdings account in amounts of tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes for herself, sometimes acting for Cohen. The lawsuit claims that while Greenberg sent a monthly email statement to Cohen, it was always Lynch who told Greenberg to release the loans.
Greenberg never bothered telling me that he was alarmed that Cohen treated the assets belonging to TH as his “personal piggy bank” but later, after I grilled him on the issue, he confirmed that Cohen’s “level of borrowing was dangerous to the structure” as I informed the IRS when I initially reported the tax fraud. The minutes Westin prepared support this position. So does the letter Cohen and I received from Westin in or around September 2004 – which advised that the IRS could overturn this structure and gave me the resolve I needed to switch accountants, hire lawyers, pay my own taxes, and report this unconscionable situation to the IRS – and hand over the evidence to them that would allow for a successful prosecution of all parties who helped Cohen avoid his “major tax hit,” evade taxes, and use me unconscionably as a pawn. I took no commission. If it was indeed a commission, the IRS Comimssioner’s Staff might want to explain why TH paid a personal commission to Cohen’s personal manager for work that took years, involved other deals – including the failed CAK bond deal, etc. An accountant/attorney advised me that Cohen should have personally paid all transaction fees and they are not expenses of TH. Leonard Cohen was well aware of the percentages and amounts due his advisers – that would include payments of 5% to both Grubman Indursky and Greg Bowman who both had contracts signed with Cohen personally. The idea of rogue advisers is preposterous. I never borrowed money for Cohen. Cohen personally borrowed the money from TH and I asked his tax lawyer to prepare promissory notes (as I was instructed to do) and he seems to have intentionally prepared them on behalf of LC Investments, LLC – further supporting the allegations that Cohen and his advisers planned to roll back TH into LCI. See corporate books and records for distributions I was to receive, etc. Was it Lynch who always told Greenberg to “release the loans.” Well, I didn’t borrow money to buy Leonard Cohen’s girlfriend and son homes. I can assure you of that.
The Greenberg suit claims Lynch, always acting as Cohen's agent, told Greenberg what to do regarding the funds. For instance, Lynch instructed Greenberg to send Cohen the monthly email status reports, but Greenberg says she directed him to leave out day-to-day activities and the status of Traditional Holdings loans. Because the loans were to be repaid, Greenberg included them in the statements as assets, which meant that it appeared as though nothing had been taken out.
It “appeared” as though nothing had been taken out? Or, did it include assets known as loans with 6% interest?
Greenberg, who declined to comment for this article, claims in his suit he repeatedly stressed to Cohen that his spending was seriously draining his investments. In one warning letter, Greenberg told Cohen that Traditional Holdings had only $2.1 million left. Considering how quickly the money was leaving the account, Greenberg wrote, "I think you should consider your situation quite desperate." It's not clear if Cohen ever received this letter. On this, Cohen and Greenberg agree: they say many of Greenberg's attempted communications with Cohen were intercepted by Lynch.
Cohen, or someone on his behalf, attempted to change my home address (re. Stranger Mgmt.) to Cohen’s home address on Tremaine in Los Angeles. I filed a complaint about this situation with the USPS. This is called mail fraud and is a very serious crime.
On other points, Cohen disagrees. He was vitally interested in his financial affairs, he says. "It wasn't that I wasn't involved -- on the contrary, I took great pains to pay these professionals well and to solicit their advice and to follow it," he insists. "And, I was receiving a report every month from Neal Greenberg indicating that my retirement savings were safe." Cohen insists he was not made aware that Lynch had been named the majority owner of Traditional Holdings; instead, he says that in an early description of the company's structure, he had been told that his two children, Lorca and Adam, would be its principal owners. He says he was shocked to learn that Lynch had almost complete ownership. The mistake Cohen admits to is that "I paid close attention to everything except the possibility that my closest associate would embrace any irregularities in the discharge of her duties."
Cohen was indeed vitally interested in his financial affairs and every other aspect of his personal and professional life. He did – he took great pains to pay these professionals well, solicit their advice, and follow it. Cohen didn’t receive a “report” monthly from Greenberg. He received statements and a courtesy email – at my insistence (because they both lie) – that noted the loans were indeed assets of TH. The loans are assets and they were to be repaid within 3 years at 6% interest. Not sure what the issue is here. Neal Greenberg and Leonard Cohen had one another’s email addresses, phone numbers, etc. I think the two of them could have (and probably did) communicate directly. Cohen was made aware of the structure of TH and Greenberg and Westin are well aware of this. There was an early
Cohen also says he learned only recently that the two sales of his intellectual property to Sony were unnecessary. He understands now that those properties earned roughly $400,000 a year, before taxes. That was plenty for him to support what he calls his modest lifestyle. Cohen accuses Lynch of creating the deals in order to boost her own income. He paid her 15 per cent of his income, which generally earned her $90,000 a year, he says. With the sales of his intellectual property bringing in revenue in the millions, it boosted her income to seven figures.
Sure he did. See Leonard Cohen’s declaration in the CAK lawsuit filed in New York. He knows precisely what his income is and what royalties are being paid through. He also understood this – he needed to have sales from “The Future,” his best selling album, included in the due diligence figures. Greg McBowman is very clear about this. How can Cohen, therefore, only now understand that those properties were worth roughly $400,000/year. I recall royalties, addressed in the CAK lawsuit and Cohen’s declaration, of $700,000/year. Does Lynch accuse me of creating the deals to boost my income? Then why did Greg McBowman and I personally meet with him, sit down with him, and advise him NOT to sell these assets? Cohen’s demand for stock deals, lowered the playing field and made these sales unattractive, so that decreased my commissions.
Greenberg's lawsuit becomes more disturbing as it describes what happened after Cohen realized he'd lost millions of dollars. Greenberg says Cohen pressured him to go after his firm's insurance company for the money to repay him. "Be a man," Cohen told Greenberg, the suit says. By threatening his reputation, it appeared to Greenberg that Cohen, on Kory's advice, had decided to target Greenberg's and his insurance company's deep pockets. Then, alleges the lawsuit, Cohen and Kory began to pressure Lynch to join them in "their extortion scheme." From November 2004 to April 2005, the lawsuit says, Kory repeatedly let Lynch know, sometimes directly, sometimes through friends or other intermediaries, that Cohen was ready to "forgive" Lynch's obligations to him, and that she in fact could receive a hefty cut of "whatever funds could be extorted from Greenberg and other advisers with her co-operation."
I want more details about Neal Greenberg’s insurance company and possible insurance fraud. I want more details about the “extortion scheme.” Cohen and Kory never advised me that they were involved in an “extortion scheme” that they wanted my help with. Kory advised me that I had a lawsuit against every single Cohen adviser. I believe Bert Deixler spoke to Kory about loans – although I do not know if he specifically addressed Cohen’s loans from TH with Kory. I was never advised that I could receive a “heft cut of whatever funds could be extorted from Greenmberg and other advisers with” my cooperation. I did, however, have grave concerns that men like Arthur Indursky, Don Friedman, Stuart Fried, and Greg McBowman were being falsely accused of things they did not do.
Greenberg's suit alleges that when Lynch refused to participate, Kory and Cohen vowed to "crush her." It goes on to say their "tactics to terrorize, silence, or disparage Lynch" included threatening her that she would go to jail, and "paying two paroled convicts to make statements that they had observed Lynch's older son brandishing a gun and threatening to kill someone."
That’s correct. There is evidence that Cohen and Kory vowed to “crush” me and used tactics to “terrorize, silence, or disparage me” including threatening me with jail which they have now accomplished with the help of DCA Sandra Streeter and possibly individuals at the LA DA’s office since Cooley and Jackson were repeatedly raised at my trial, Cooley attempted to obtain a restraining order against me, and Captain Jack Horvath lied to the court about me in his letter submitted during the sentencing phase. I’ve spoken with Elie, who I do not view as a “paroled convict” and he doesn’t appear to have been paid to advise Cohen that my older son brandished a gun and threatened to kill someone, which never happened, but I am aware that Cohen/Kory targeted both of my children, filed a declaration in my younger son’s custody matter, and there are deadly serious matters relating to my older son.
Lynch's response, to all of this has been bitter, scattered and in some cases difficult to comprehend. In a rambling exchange of emails with Maclean's last week, she denied any wrongdoing. She also declined to discuss the Agile Group's lawsuit, describing it as "bogus" and "slanderous," while promising to file her own complaints against Cohen and other principal players in the case. She added her phone had been disconnected because she lacked money to pay the bills.
That’s correct. Bitterness, as I explained to Lt. Allende/LASD, might be the best word to describe my point of view but, as I just advised DDA Bill Hodgman, I won’t be sending thank you notes or flowers to Cohen any time soon. Were my emails “rambling?” Why? Because MacLean is an adoring fan of Cohen’s who is impressed with a fraud and a Canadian national treasure who cannot live in Canada because he has residence/tax issues there. That’s rich. I stand by my words at the time – Greenberg’s lawsuit was bogus and slanderous. I absolutely plan to file a complaint against Leonard Cohen and other principal players. Johnson’s clear about this so my emails must not have been all that rambling. My phone was disconnected.
In the meantime, she's been showering Cohen and others with invective-laden emails that alternately voice misery and hurl accusations at friends and former colleagues. Many of these lament losing custody of her 12-year-old son, Ray, to his father, music producer Steve Lindsay. A few devolve into the outrightly bizarre. One missive, sent July 17 and obtained byMaclean's, invites Greenberg in highly explicit terms to Lynch's home for an evening of tantric sex. "First I want to study the inner channels with you," it says. "Why not -- let's see who is better at tantric sex -- you or me."
Invective laden? I voiced misery and lament about the custody matter that was clearly coordinated by Lindsey who was meeting with Cohen and Kory, attempting to encourage me to do a deal with Cohen, was out of control with respect to Dinah Englund and their baby, appeared to be in dire financial straits (re. his publishing catalogue that included songs written by Mike Elizondo for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and others), was utterly abusive with me and my younger son, threatened me in front of His Eminence Choegon Rinpoche, and it just goes on and on. That’s correct – I did facetiously invite Greenberg to an evening of “tantric sex.” He liked to sexually harass my friends who worked for him and I thought he mimght want to study the “inner channels” rather than engaging in what I absolutely believe was and is criminal conduct and not appropriate for any Buddhist. I would suspect that Neal Greenberg wouldn’t understand “tantric sex” if he fell over it.
So troubling have the messages become that several people who know Lynch fear she's become unhinged. "I'm afraid she's suicidal," says Lindsay, her ex-husband, adding that in his judgment she's been acting erratically for the better part of a year. Cohen too sent Lynch a message last fall spelling out his concern in verse: You can't tell the difference between a threat / and a helping hand, he wrote. You can't tell the difference between a threat / and a solemn warning / from one of the few people / who still cares about you and your family.
Lindsey had motive to say he was afraid I was “suicidal.” I was not and am not. I was not acting erratically for the better part of a minute. Lindsey, on the other hand, was and many people witnessed his conduct. It is clear that Cohen and Lindsey aligned themselves with one nother. I can tell the difference between a threat and helping hand. A solemn warning? Here’s a solemn warning to anyone considering tax evasion: pay your taxes. Your actions will inevitably catch up with you. Leonard Cohen is a fraud and most definitely not one of the “few people who still cares about” me or my family. This man cannot stop lying.
Lynch's apparent troubles have had punishing legal consequences. Lindsay has obtained a temporary restraining order that prevents her from visiting her son. Tara Cooper, a former employee of a greeting card company Lynch started while still in Cohen's employ, has taken out a similar order after alleging that Lynch sent threatening emails and harassed her by phone. And two of her creditors -- upscale department stores Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman -- have filed collections claims against her in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Lindsey appears to have coordinated the custody matter and SWAT incident. Tara Cooper was in contact with Lindsey and I was told that her mother felt the best way for her to stay out of the custody matter was to take out a restraining order. According to Cooper and her sister, their mother is a “tantric sex” practitioner who advises teenagers that she is a CIA agent. LAPD’s phone calls to Tara Cooper definitely need to be investigated. Her ex-boyfriend advised me that she is psychotic and he appeared to have details regarding her activity at this moment in time. I never sent threatening emails to Cooper or harassed her by phone.
This is the mess that Leonard Cohen -- a man many believe floats a few inches above the ground -- finds himself in. These days, he's Zen-like. In the course of a long interview by phone from his home in Los Angeles, the man sometimes called the poet laureate of pessimism sounded almost bemused. "What can I do?" he asks. "I had to go to work. I have no money left. I'm not saying it's bad; I have enough of an understanding of the way the world works to understand that these things happen."
Many naïve people do believe Cohen “floats a few inches above the ground.” Phil Spector and I are not those individuals – and neither is the woman who just advised me that Cohen has them “bamboozled.” Leonard Cohen had money left. He received $1 million from Sony as an advance on “Dear Heather.” If he spent all that money from approximately September 2004 until August 2005, that has nothing to do with me.
His first choice of action when he learned his money was gone, he says, was to not do anything. Aware of how painful litigation could be, he says he wanted no part of it. "I said, 'I can walk away with nothing.' I said, 'Let me start again. Let me start fresh at 70. I can cobble together a little nest egg again.' " But he ran into a glaring, immediate problem: had he done nothing, he would have legally been responsible for the funds that had gone missing. And on that money, he'd owe millions in taxes, a sum he no longer had.
Leonard Cohen didn’t learn that money was gone. He heard, and we discussed this, that I was reporting his tax fraud to the IRS. I have done that. In fact, Robert Kory wrote me on May 24, 2005 advising me that the IRS will demand questions going back many years so that might want to interrogate this loser who Steven Machat calls “Satan.” We are getting to Cohen’s motive: he would owe millions in taxes. It has nothing to do with the non-existent missing funds.
His next step, "his second-best choice," was to negotiate with his advisers about the missing money. He approached Lynch, asking her to open her books. "She resolutely and unconditionally refused to open her books to any scrutiny whatsoever and instead began a bizarre email campaign to discredit me in some kind of way, which has gone all over the place," Cohen says, adding that he's launching a lawsuit this week with great reluctance. "I don't want anybody hurt. It's not my nature to pursue and to contend with people that way." Cohen says all he wants is to find out where the money went. "I'm not accusing her of theft," he says of Lynch. Still, his countersuit will likely describe how money was removed from his accounts.
What books? Cohen could easily obtain all statements from his bank accounts, corporate accounts, and Greenberg – which he did, without an accounting. Kory said this – if they proved I didn’t put money in off-shore accounts, we had a settlement. No money was placed in off-shore accounts – apart from Cohen’s off-shore accounts that I have brought to the attention of the IRS Commissioner’s Staff and others. They should contact Loyens & Volkmaars. Leonard Cohen appears to have taken “bearer bonds” from Marty Machat. Steven Machat and I have discussed this and I believe I saw a copy at Cohen’s house (in a file) with a reference to R&M Productions. Steven Machat confirmed that R&M Productions is the entity where Machat & Machat deposited their royalties. I resolutely and unconditionally refused to hand over the corporate books and records, meet with Cohen or his lawyers, and advised my lawyers to contact Cohen and his lawyer in writing and schedule a meeting with them. I refused to attend. They met and Westin was asked “Why didn’t you set the annuity up legally?” and responded, according to my lawyers “This is how we do things in Kentucky.” He advised my lawyers that he was not trained in tax preparation which is unconscionable. Having said that, he prepared and filed Cohen’s tax returns and other corporate returns. Cohen testified that his lawyer maintained his corporate books and records although that appears to contradict information in his legal documents. Cohen launched a lawsuit because I reported his tax fraud to Agent Betzer/IRS in April 2005 and then contacted the IRS Commissioner’s Staff in Washington, DC. It was and remains retaliatory. The good news – he told MacLean’s he’s not accusing me of theft and testified during cross-examination that I have not stolen from him.
Cohen appears to have been blindsided by Greenberg's lawsuit. He insists that he and Kory were in the midst of mediation with Greenberg when the financial adviser's lawsuit was suddenly and unexpectedly filed. He says the mediation had been confidential, at Greenberg's urging, as he feared for his reputation. In an email to Greenberg, Cohen urges him to make good. "Dear Neal, I believed in you. I depended on you," Cohen wrote in November 2004. "When things went wrong, does it make any sense that you would make your warnings available to the only person in the cosmos who had an interest in deceiving me? A single, simple email informing me that my accounts were being emptied would have been enough. I answered EVERY SINGLE EMAIL you ever sent me. Fortunately, I have them all.
I am entitled to all details regarding Cohen and Greenberg’s mediation as well as Cohen and Westin’s mediation. I don’t think the mediation was confidential for the reasons mentioned. I think it was confidential because the IRS might pick up on it.
"Face up to it, Neal," the email continues, "and square your shoulders: You were the trusted guardian of my assets, and you let them slip away . . . Restore what you lost, and sleep well." In his sign-off, Cohen delivered as much a piece of advice as his own philosophy: "Put this behind you and it will dissolve." There's an irony here, that a man who has struggled much of his life to distance himself from the material world now, at 70, finds himself in an intense battle with it. Still, he's not defeated. "This has propelled us into incessant work," he says of himself and Thomas. He exudes optimism about their new CD. "It's one of the best albums I've heard." It's not closing time quite yet.
That’s correct. Neal Greenberg was the “guardian of” Cohen’s “assets.” And Cohen is the alter ego who has engaged in self-dealing. All the IRS Commissioner’s Staff has to do is read Cohen’s interviews with Brian Johnson. He is very clear – as is his motive.
With CHARLIE GILLIS and BRIAN D. JOHNSON
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050822_110877_110877
Cohen's lifestyle seems anything but lavish
BRIAN D. JOHNSON | Aug 17, 2005
Through interviewing him over the years, I've developed a bit of a relationship with Leonard Cohen. We stay in touch by email, and if I'm in Los Angeles or Montreal, the two cities he calls home, I might look him up. A few weeks ago, I joined him for dinner at his house in L.A. with his 30-year-old daughter, Lorca, and a friend. Leonard served matzo ball soup and beef brisket, a dinner prepared by a friend's mother and dropped off at his door. It was a Friday night, Shabbat, and before the meal they sang in Hebrew.(Though a Buddhist, Leonard maintains some Jewish traditions.)That night he told me what he'd hinted at months earlier in an email -- that he'd been stripped of most of his assets, and was mired in a legal battle with his money managers, who would accuse him of extortion. He said it would get nasty and personal, and that his name would be dragged through the mud.
Brian Johnson is impressed with Cohen, has been referred to as an “awe inspired fan,” and is one of the few journalists Leonard Cohen actually speaks to. Cohen was Buddhist for the entire I knew him but, after meeting Leon Wieseltier, he began his Friday evening Shabbat tradition. I wonder how Cohen “hinted” in an email months earlier (this article is dated August 17, 2005 – appears to coincide with Cohen’s lawsuit filed in August 2005 – and Johnson states that he was with Cohen a few weeks earlier in Los Angeles) that he’d been “stripped of most of his assets.” Cohen’s preparing Johnson for the fact that he is about to be revealed for who he truly is. He now has to convert himself into a “victim.” Cohen enjoys props. They include – popsicle, Matzo Ball soup, bananas, a stick of incense, doing his own dishes, tuna fish sandwiches, prayer beads, a “valice,” etc.
Now, after reading the pre-emptive lawsuit filed against him, a 34-page screed that reads like a salacious tabloid, I know what he meant. It's bizarre, and sad. But I had to laugh. In trying to portray this Zen poet as a criminal mastermind, his accusers kept referring to his "extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle." I've had a glimpse or two of that "lifestyle," and by celebrity standards, at least, it seems decidedly spartan.
Cohen’s extravagance is concealed from journalists and others. He has given Sasaki Roshi a gift of $500,000.00 which is quite extravagant to most citizens of the United States and Canada. He testified that he bought homes for his girlfriend and son. Those homes were worth, individually, approximately $400,000.00 to $500,000.00. Etc. He provided his son, Adam Cohen, with approximamtely $5,000-6,000.00 a month and I have a letter (dictated to me) where Cohen acknmowledges speaking to my father about the fact that Adam Cohen could not live on a budget of $6,000/month. Cohen bought a building, on Melrose Avenue, for his daughter Lorca Cohen. These are extravagances that most individuals cannot afford. Cohen’s flat in Los Angeles does seem “Spartan,” decidedly so, but most people don’t own homes (several) in Montreal, Los Angeles, and Greece. Nor do most people stay at the Four Seasons, etc. I have no idea what “celebrity standards” refers to but I know this – Oliver Stone felt that the donations he gave to His Holiness Kusum Lingpa were substantial and they pale in contrast to the donations Cohen gave to Joshu Sasaki Roshi. I happen to agree with Oliver Stone.
His home in Montreal, which he bought in 1972, is a sparsely furnished, unrenovated row house without air conditioning. There are a few Persian rugs scattered about. The most luxurious item, which he seems quite thrilled with, is a recently purchased Tempur-Pedic bed, with a fair-sized television at the foot of it. His house in L.A., on a leafy middle-class street not far from downtown, is a modest duplex with no pool. His daughter lives downstairs. There's a small recording studio in the backyard. In the living room/dining room, a portable CD player serves as the sound system.
Leonard Cohen intentionally maintains Spartan, European-like homes. He also patterned his decorations after those of Dominique Isermann’s home in Paris, France. Leonard Cohen bought three homes in Los Angeles. Leonard Cohen knows that journalists like the fact that he plays his CDs on a portable CD player and in his car.
Leonard enjoys red wine. I like to bring a good bottle when I come for dinner, but he's usually got something less expensive open. One night in L.A., after proudly serving a dinner of lentil soup that he'd made himself, he set about trying to fix an old toaster. The kitchen has no dishwasher. The only signs of extravagance I could detect were three kinds of premium tequila nestled in the freezer, which was stacked with TV dinners. Leonard doesn't go out much. He and his partner, Anjani Thomas -- who lives down the street -- do catch the occasional movie. Leonard saw War of the Worlds, which he said was "dumb -- and that's a word I never use." But it was at the mall, not at a Hollywood premiere.
Leonard Cohen enjoys very expensive bottles of wine. In fact, on “The Future” tour he was drinking three bottles of extremely expensive 1979 Chateau LaTour. Leonard Cohen has intentionally Europeanized himself so the fact that his kitchen has no “dishwasher” (which is frequently noted in articles about him) is obvious. Anjani Thomas lives down the street. Most people do not buy their girlfriends $18,000.00 baby grand pianos or Elton John’s manager’s assistant, Jill) $17,000.00 statues when they hardly know the individual but seem dead set on impressing Don Henley at a charity event. Leonard Cohen uses the words “dumb” and “fun.” It disarms people. The same is true of his “courtly manners” which Sylvie Simmons (biographer who has a chapter in her book called “Taxes, Children & Lost Pussy”) mentioned.
In a triumph of redundancy, the lawsuit against Cohen describes him as a "famous celebrity" -- not to be confused, one supposes, with all those unknown celebrities. Leonard is, indeed, famous in Canada as well as in some other countries, such as Norway. If he decides to tour again, he'll have no trouble selling out concert halls around the world. And in Montreal, where he's a patron saint, he does get recognized on the street.
Leonard Cohen was discussing a tour, behind “Dear Heather,” with me in 2004. Johnson notes that Cohen will have no trouble selling out concert halls around the world but Cohen advised the news media that he was broke and had to go on tour. I wonder what happened to the $1 million advance he received in August/September 2004 (just before he heard I was going to the IRS about his tax fraud – October 2004)? That sounds like quite a lot of money. Cohen also made substantial monies from the lithograph deal I negotiated for quite a long period of time. Etc.
But in Los Angeles, a town saturated with stardom, he's virtually anonymous. More legend than star, Leonard has achieved an ideal level of celebrity. He knows how to play the game and how to woo the media. In 1994, he vanished for five years to serve as a monk at a monastery on Mount Baldy in southern California, without fear of losing his place. He knew that when he came down from the mountain and re-entered the fray, several generations of loyal fans would be there waiting for him -- as he sang in Boogie Street: I'm wanted at the traffic-jam / They're saving me a seat.
Cohen’s fans know who he is and where he hangs out – including around the post office box business on Larchmont, at the La Brea Bakery, Kantor’s, Etc. Cohen does indeed know how to play the celebrity game and woo the media. That’s why he’s communicating with and meeting with Brian Johnson. Cohen is aware that I reported his tax fraud to Agent Bill Betzer/IRS who advised me on or around April 15, 2005 (after my taxes were paid in full) to report the tax fraud to the IRS Fraud Hotline. Agent Betzer then advised me to bring the tax fraud into the IRS with a lawyer. I ultimately contacted the Fraud Hotline, reported the tax fraud via the internet to the IRS – who sent me a confirmation, and contacted the IRS in Washington, DC (where I spoke to a woman about my contacts with the Fraud Hotline and Agent Betzer/IRS confirmed that this IRS employee called him about the Fraud Hotline and me as well) …
For those fans, Leonard's financial woes may come as a blessing. Now that he's broke, he's had to fan the fire under a career that has been quietly smouldering. He's putting the finishing touches on a long-awaited collection of new poetry, the Book of Longing, which McClelland & Stewart plans to publish in March. He's eager to record a new album in the fall and hopes to tour -- for the first time in 12 years. And when I visited him last month, he played me an unmastered recording of a stunning album of new songs he's produced for his partner and collaborator, Anjani Thomas.
Why is Leonard Cohen broke? If Leonard Cohen is broke why did he stop the multi-million asset deal that he demanded? He testified at my trial that he was “examining” that deal and advised me and Greg McBowman that he wanted these deals because he was concerned about “illegal music downloading.” Greg McBowman and I felt a bond deal was a better way to go but Sony was insistent – they did not want their artist setting this type of precedent. After all, advances are the currency of the music industry and Leonard Cohen’s refusal to hand in contractually obligated studio albums (every 12-24 months) was not his attempt to voluntarily reduce his income. It is due to the fact that he doesn’t like to work, hangs around gossiping and bad-mouthing people, and lives in rarefied air. His work ethic has been handed down to his son and daughter although Cohen has gone to great lengths to support their careers as shop owner and recording artist. Johnson is clear – it took Cohen 12 years to hand in a new studio album. This proves that Cohen’s statements in his lawsuit that he voluntarily reduced his income by going to Mt. Baldy is a lie. The Future was delivered in 1993. Dear Heather in 2004.
Titled Blue Alert, it's a collection of jazz-blues ballads, with Anjani singing Leonard's words and accompanying herself on piano. The project, which Sony will release early next year, originated when she picked up a notebook of his lyrics lying open on the coffee table. Anjani, who began singing backup for Cohen in the '80s, has an exquisite voice. But here she drops her soprano down a notch and sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. With her hypnotic vocals harnessed to his lyrics, Blue Alert's torch songs put her in a league with Diana Krall and Norah Jones. And though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke.
At a certain point, it seemed as though Cohen was using Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas to sing his vocals. He even travelled to Berkeley, CA to meet with people about a digital voice simulator.
Leonard now admits to being strangely happy, although he conceded that being wiped out financially and having your name blackened "is enough to put a dent in your mood." But his chronic depression, which lifted more than a decade ago on Mount Baldy, has not returned. With monastic discipline he gets up at 4 a.m. to write, and clings to the peace of the morning before the lawyers' phone calls and emails break the spell. The last time I saw him, he read me an ancient Eastern scripture that says that, internally, you must be "free of hope and desire," while outwardly you should "do what is to be done." Those years of extravagant meditation on Mount Baldy have not been in vain. When you're broke on Boogie Street, a little Buddhist detachment may prove invaluable.
Leonard Cohen was not “wiped out financially” and his named was not “blackened.” Leonard Cohen’s actions have assailed his reputation. Leonard Cohen was not on Mt. Baldy for years and to witness this man meditating is frightening. In fact, he told me (sometime after LASD rolled by to interview him about his comments to the news media re. Phil Spector) that I am the only person he doesn’t resent or feel thoughts of revenge/retaliation towards while meditating. This was very obvious to me although I would assume now that he is filled with rage towards me and was delighted to see me in handcuffs. As someone recently noted, he would probably prefer seeing me handcuffed in bed but no one has proven that Cohen and I had a “sexual relationship” so hopefully he has video footage – and that would include with respect to his allegations to my younger son’s father that Oliver Stone and I had sex (an issue prosecutor Streeter raised at my “intent to annoy trial”). Oliver Stone and I did not have sex.
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