Judge Orders Phony Booking Agency to Cough Up Millions For Phony Nelly Booking

United States district judge Laura Swain has ordered Capital Connections Agency (CCA) -- a company that billed itself as "the largest booking agency in the United States" and represents president Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Bill Gates, Venus Williams, Oprah Winfrey, etc. -- to pay almost two million in damages for refusing to return a deposit for a booking they had no right to, er, book. According to documents obtained by the folks over at Courthouse News, in October 2009, Loop Production contacted CCA to book rapper Nelly to play at a Taiwanese New Year's Eve event. After speaking with CCA president Durbert O'Neal Brandon Jr. and singing a contract, Loop wired $40,000 to the company to secure Nelly for the party. On Nov. 16, CCA claimed it had not received the funds, but when Loop provided them with the serial number verifying the money was deposited into their account, Loop then claimed they received the monies a day late -- on Nov. 12 instead of Nov. 11 -- therefore Loop breached the contract. After four months of back-and-forth conversations demanding a refund, Loop finally realized they've been had. They made contact with Nelly's true manager, who confirmed that he's never heard of CCA and they don't have permission to book Nelly. Despite that revelation, CCA still refused to refund the $40,000 deposit, so Loop filed a lawsuit on April 27, 2010 claiming CCA committed RICO violations, common law fraud and fraudulent inducement, aiding and abetting fraud, breach of contract, and conversion -- plus, a return of the $40,000 and the $188,500 in loss profits for the New Year's Eve party had Nelly performed as scheduled. This week, the judge threw the book at CCA, ordering the phony company to fork over in excess of $1.8 million in damages.



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