Disgraced former billionaire Kanye West is facing more financial backlash from his continued rash of remarks that have been blasted as anti-Semitic.
His company, Yeezy, is being hit with more than $600,000 in tax liens. On top of this, a creative director who worked for Yeezy has filed a lawsuit against the company, RadarOnline.com reported.
The Tax Liens
Yeezy was first notified of the back due taxes in July 2021, and another notice was issued in September 2022, according to Daily Mail. The company has three tax liens totaling more than $610K, Radar reported.
The Yeezy brand isn’t the only company owned by Ye, whose net worth dropped to $400 million, that is having tax problems.
NBC News reports that California has placed 17 liens against three of Ye’s businesses and a charity created in his name, dating as far back as 2012. Four of the liens are still “active,” and he has owed these to state since 2020.
“Multiple California tax liens, adding up to $600,000, that’s certainly a sign of either extreme incompetence or extreme cash problems,” USC Gould School of Law Professor Edward McCaffery, who specializes in tax law, told NBC. “That is kind of an Amber Alert for the financial health of the enterprise.”
To make matters more questionable, the Yeezy LLC reportedly obtained between $2 million and $5 million through the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal relief program designed to help businesses during the pandemic.
The Lawsuit
A lawsuit filed against Ye was filed on December 7 by Brooklyn creative director Katelyn Mooney, the New York Post reports. In the court papers, she claims she was stiffed by West who owes her company $95,000 for services rendered.
According to Mooney, she was contacted by Yeezy reps on Sept. 11 to arrange a photo shoot in New York for West’s new sunglasses line called SHDZ. The filing says she was told by text message she was being hired for $110,000.
Mooney says she pulled together the photo shoot for Sept. 13 and delivered the photos the following day, just in time for New York Fashion Week. She claims she has only been paid $15,000.
“[She] has had to take out a significant loan and max out her credit cards just to cover her rent and other bills,” Mooney’s lawyer Andrew Gerber told the court.
“She put herself out for this shoot on an extremely tight schedule and has had to incur significant debt in order to just pay her rent and bills and support her children because of Yeezy’s failure to timely pay her invoice on this,” Gerber added. Mooney is the mother of three.
A Yeezy accounts payable employee told the Post, “All debts have been paid. We confirmed with her yesterday all amounts due and have submitted payments.” Gerber said this information is false.
