UKA-11 Swindled Out of More than 4 Million Kroner

In February 2011, UKA-11 placed a bid on the artist, Kanye West, through the Norwegian booking company, A/C Circus AS. The conditions of the bid were that Kanye West would only play two concerts in Norway in 2011. The bid and the conditions were accepted, and a down payment was transferred to an escrow account belonging to the American agent, William Morris Endeavor. On April 6, 2011, Øyafestivalen and Bergen Calling [two Norwegian music festivals] announced that Kanye West would be performing in their respective festivals, which was not in accordance with the contract with UKA-11. UKA-11 then chose to annul the contract since they could no longer claim that the American artist would be appearing exclusively at their festival. In choosing to annul the contract, UKA-11 was acting within their rights which had been stipulated by the contract, and it was agreed that the down payment would be transferred back to UKA. UKA announced this in a press release.

Suspicious Behavior

The down payment, however, was not transferred back to UKA by the date upon which all parties had agreed. UKA quickly engaged a lawyer to secure the return of the funds. Investigations showed that the money had been embezzled by the booking company in order to pay old debts. Those accused admitted guilt.

“Four million kroner is a lot of money. Those who try to trick Samfundet won’t go unpunished,” says chairman, Dag Herrem, of Samfundet’s finance board.

Missing 700,000

After negotiations in the Oslo municipal court, UKA has recovered most of the 4 million that the agent in A/C Circus embezzled. 700,000 kroner remain, for which the accused party has taken personal responsibility. UKA has written that they will not let the case rest before they have recovered the entire sum. Samfundet and UKA have begun changing the rules and practices for booking and payment of artists.

“We do not wish to put ourselves at risk unnecessarily with down payments to artists or similar parties. UKA and Samfundet will therefore change their practices regarding booking. We don’t want to experience anything like this again,” says Herrem.

Under Dusken will be back with more information about this case.