Baseline records accuse Skales' manager of stealing over N13m

Osagie Osarenkhoe, also known as This Metal Chic, has been accused of fraud by Baseline Records, home to Skales and Aramide.

Osagie, currently managing Skales, has been accused by the record label of stealing the sum of N13,374,000 in the past 12 months. The record label has released a length petition addressed to the Inspector General of Police and right now Osagie is at the Police Station as they try to sort things out.

The petition reads in part:

On the 11th of July, 2014 the company entered into an Artiste and Record Company Multiple Right Agreement (the “Contract”) between itself and Raoul Njeng Njeng (also known as Skales) for the provision by Skales of exclusive recording services to the Company for a period of 5 (five) years.

Under the terms of the Contract, Skales assigned to the company all copyright and other rights or interests throughout the world in all sound recordings made by Skales prior to or during the term of the Contract. The Contract further provided that the Company shall be entitled to 70% (seventy percent) of the gross receipts received by Skales from performance and tours and brand endorsements during the term of the Contract.

Skales introduced Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe to the Company as his manager and stated her duties to include inter alia tour bookings, strategy and promotion. In order to avoid a situation where accounts will be disputed, the Company set in place a procedure for the remittance of monies received from performances, tours and brand endorsements involving Skales. The procedure implemented at the beginning of the Contract was the payment of all monies received in pursuance of performances and endorsements into the Baseline account, whereupon the 30% due to Skales would be transferred to his (Skales’) account after the deduction of expenses. The above procedure was implemented at the beginning of the Contract and monies were remitted in the manner stated above. The Company however noticed that rather than remit monies to the Company account as agreed, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe falsely dictated to event promoters that monies were to be paid to her personal accounts.

In all the circumstances where monies were paid to Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe’s personal accounts, these monies were never repaid to the Company.

The Company noticed that although Skales was listed as performing at various concerts, shows, tours and other events, none of the monies received from these events was remitted to the Company. In this regard, the Company invited Skales and his manager Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe to various meetings seeking an account and a reconciliation. At these meetings, both Skales and his manager Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe insisted that the events in question were not paid events and as such there were no monies to remit. These dubious activities continued for a period of 12 (twelve) months wherein the Company was fraudulently deprived of its legitimate earnings by the said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe as payments made for performances were paid directly into her account in violation of the procedure set up for payments at the beginning of the Contract. The Company in March of 2016 decided to catalogue some of the paid shows, performances, concerts and tours wherein Skales performed and the monies were fraudulently converted for personal use by the said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe.

By the Company’s estimation, from the aforementioned events, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe has fraudulently converted the sum of N7,474,000 from this brief period without accounting to the Company or making payments first into the Company’s accounts as stipulated in the Contract. This is without factoring all the other performances, tours and shows where no remittance was made from the period January 2015 to April 2016.

In order to properly document this fraud and catch Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe in the act of theft, the Company created an email address, and sent an email to Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe requesting the performance of Skales at an event in California on the 2nd June, 2016. In the email communication, Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe requested the sum of $5,000 (five thousand US dollars) for the performance as well as one business class ticket, one economy class ticket and two hotel rooms in a 4-star hotel. (please find enclosed herewith the email communication between Skales and Femi George with respect to the said performance) On 18th May, 2016 the first tranche of $2,500 (two thousand five hundred US dollars) representing 50% (fifty percent) of the performance fee demanded by Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe was wired.

The Company in 2015 entered into an agreement with Upfront and Personal, for the engagement of Skales to appear in TV commercials, billboards websites and other social media on behalf of MTN Pulse. As per the terms of the agreement, Upfront and Personal was to pay to the Company the sum of N5,000,000 (five million naira) in two tranches of N2,500,000 (two million five hundred thousand naira each). The said Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe representing that she was authorized by the Company obtained the sum of N5,000,000 (five million naira) due to the Company without being so authorized. Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe has failed after repeated demands to repay the said N5,000,000 (five million naira) fraudulently obtained.

Given the above circumstances, the Company believes that a fraud has been committed against it by Teresa Osagioduwa Osarenkhoe. The Company hereby appeals to your good office to investigate this matter in the interest of fairness and justice.

Osagie has also spoken out about the ongoing case via Twitter: