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Rihanna Sues Accountants for 'Tens of Millions' in Losses

By Andrew Lu on July 06, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

When you hear that Rihanna filed a lawsuit, it may be natural to assume that she's suing her ex Chris Brown, her ex Drake, or any other celebrity ex of hers that is constantly in the news.

But surprisingly, Rihanna is suing something called Berdon LLP.

Berdon served as Rihanna's accountants for several years as the young star rose. In her lawsuit, Rihanna says that Berdon abused their position of trust and fleeced her for tens of millions of dollars, reports Entertainment Weekly.

Rihanna says she signed with Berdon when she was16 and had just come to this country from Barbados. Being young, foreign and rich, Rihanna claims that she was easily taken advantage of by the accounting firm. The singer is seeking unspecified damages, but says she lost "tens of millions of dollars" to the firm.

In one example, Rihanna says that Berdon negotiated a deal with her where the accounting firm would get paid a percentage of the total gross proceeds from a concert tour. Stunningly, the firm made off with 22% of the total revenues from the tour. Rihanna's cut was only 6%, reports Entertainment Weekly. In her lawsuit, Rihanna makes note that this billing method by her accountants is far from standard practice.

Generally, when you hire an accountant, you are hiring someone to act in your best interest. The accountant is considered your fiduciary, and should not have a payment method or other incentive that conflicts with your best interests. In Rihanna's case, she claims that her accountants had such a conflict. They wanted to profit as much as possible off of her, to the obvious detriment of their client.

Many young stars are taken advantage of by trusted advisors. By filing the lawsuit, Rihanna shows that she spotted the possible wrongdoing at an early age and is taking steps to recover her losses.

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