Operation Misery: Week 3, Day 3.

There has still been no official word on how Rihanna's concert last night in Saint Paul's, US went. Nor has there been any official explanation as to why tonight's concert in Winnipeg, Canada has been delayed by one hour. There hasn't even been any word as whether Rihanna has crossed the international border between the US and Canada although let's be honest we're not expecting any problems on the Canadian side.

So instead I will concentrate of the events of this coming Tuesday (26/3/13). Although Rihanna won't be performing it will be a big day for her as the latest round in the Robyn Fenty Versus Berdon LLP and associates is heard in a Barbados court. Although I've not seen the papers this case centres around an accusation that Berdon drained tens of millions of dollars from Rihanna's tour revenues by charging unjustified fees. This was done to such an extent that Rihanna actually incurred a loss from the 2009 Last Girl on Earth tour despite gross revenues (ticket sales etc) indicating a healthy profit. The case also accuses Berdon LLP of being responsible for accountancy errors that have seen Rihanna being under an ongoing audit by the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) since roughly 2010.

I am of course very interested to see the full case papers. The first thing I will be looking for is some even vaguely legal reason why a suit filed by a US resident against a US company in a US Court is being heard in Barbados at all. The political reason is of course pretty obvious. Tuesday's hearing is going to centre on the role of Rihanna's book-keeper/accountant mother in the dispute. This is of course intended to be used as a metaphor for Rihanna's mother's role in her life in general and specifically her relationship with Chris Brown.

The problem for the US who are attempting to impose this survey on Barbados is that by appointing Judge Reifer (prn Reefer - as in marijuana joint) it is quite clear that Barbados have already concluded that Chris Brown is the root cause of Rihanna's problems. This puts Barbados in a very difficult position because if they refuse to allow Chris Brown entry to the country Rihanna will simply refuse to visit cutting her off from their positive influences and further into Chris Brown's clutches. I think they should just go for it though. That's because while it will take the US to limit the damage that Chris Brown is able to do to Rihanna we can certainly limit the damage he does to everybody else.

As for Rihanna while the IRS audit does make it very difficult she should seriously consider dropping the case and rather then focusing on how she got ripped off on previous tours focus on how she's getting ripped-off on this tour. That's because while Team Rihanna are still refusing to lift a finger her fans (the Navy) have been bending over backwards to make sure I get the information I require. That's creating an Us versus Them mentality between Rihanna and the Navy that is going to leave some of them questioning why they bother.


16:20 on 25/3/13.


Edited at around 16:40 on 25/3/13 to add: Now I've had coffee I should point out that while I've not seen the case papers I suspect what has triggered the IRS audit is the suspicion that Rihanna and her mother conspired with Berdon LLP to charge these fees in order to evade tax. The untaxed income would then be re-paid to Rihanna. However if after this length of time the IRS have been unable to find that money trail it's because it doesn't exist. Therefore they should either proceed to prosecution or drop the audit.

Of course the US will claim that they're keeping the audit in place as a way to supervise Rihanna's finances to make sure she doesn't get ripped-off that badly again. However could I be so bold as to suggest by creating all this stress and disruption the US actually preventing Rihanna from learning how to manage her own finances.

And yes this case does perfectly reflect my efforts to teach my newly self-employed friend about filing tax returns. Hence the term "Mirror."