Article from the Globe and Mail

[Anne]

Cohen gets his loot back
Letters from Dylan and Mitchell among 35 boxes seized
manager
By JAMES ADAMS

Thursday, November 17, 2005 Page R1

Letters from Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Allen Ginsberg were found among 35 boxes of documents and memorabilia seized by the Los Angeles County sheriff's office from the home of Leonard Cohen's former manager.

Lawyers for the 71-year-old Montreal-born singer-songwriter-poet, named yesterday to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, obtained a writ of possession late last month to remove the material, which also includes gold records and financial documents, from Kelley Lynch after she reportedly took them last year from the offices of Stranger Music in Los Angeles.

The seizure is part of a $21.5-million (U.S.) suit against Lynch who served as Cohen's manager from 1988 until he fired her in the fall of 2004. Cohen's counsel also recently filed a subpoena to retrieve all of Lynch's financial records, including bank deposits and withdrawals.

Lynch and a lawyer-tax consultant hired by her in 1996 were named in August in a wide-ranging civil claim in California Superior Court that alleges they fraudulently deprived the creator of Suzanne and Famous Blue Raincoat of millions of dollars in assets that he hoped would serve as his retirement nest egg. None of the allegations have been proven in court; moreover, Lynch has yet to respond to the complaint or file a countersuit, claiming she was improperly served the original 35-page complaint in late August.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Cohen will be attending a hearing Dec. 16 in Denver with lawyers for Neal Greenberg, a Colorado financial adviser whose company, the Agile Group, helped manage Cohen's assets for about eight years, starting in 1996. Greenberg launched a suit in June against Cohen, alleging the singer-songwriter was "conspiring to commit extortion against [him]" because they believed he had contributed to a loss of at least $8-million of Cohen's assets.

While Greenberg's suit also accuses Lynch of wrongfully siphoning Cohen's proceeds, it claims that after learning of his "staggering losses," Cohenhatched a scheme with a Los Angeles lawyer, Robert Kory -- former husband of Cohen's current partner, singer Anjani Thomas -- to recover the missing money by threatening to smear Greenberg's "spotless reputation and proven track record."

The Dec. 16 hearing in U.S. District Court will consider a motion to compel arbitration that Cohen's lawyers filed in August. It's Cohen's contention that agreements he signed with Greenberg in the mid-1990s require that "any dispute or controversy" arising from those deals have to be considered first by a panel of the National Association of Securities Dealers in Los Angeles.

Cohen, whose first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies, was published in 1956, has been friends and, in some instances, a correspondent with some of the leading artistic lights of the last 40 years. These include singers Joni Mitchell (with whom he was romantically involved in 1967), Bob Dylan, Bono (of U2) and Judy Collins, poets Allen Ginsberg, Irving Layton, Alexander Trocchi and A. M. Klein, broadcaster Moses Znaimer, fashion photographer Dominique Issermann and publisher-editors Jack McClelland and Ellen Seligman.

[Tchocolatl]

I can't help but think that all this is just too sad. But - hum - this kind of "scandal" is also the best publicity when one needs to quickly rebuilt a retirement nest egg Unfortunately we may say. But. You know.

[lizzytysh]

Thanks for posting the article, Anne.

I've already PM'd Songbird, but that's fine, too.

I'm glad Leonard got his letters back. 'Stuff is stuff,' but letters are irreplaceable. Leonard obviously values the written words, thoughts, and feelings of his loved ones, as much as he values his own. Even as I read the article, I thought, "Thank G~d she didn't destroy them." Those letters go a long way back, and are part of what Leonard considers his true treasures.


~ Lizzy

[Fljotsdale]

I'm glad he got that stuff back, too. Invaluable material.

But court cases - claims, counter-claims, accusations-counter-accusations... it is all so sordid. What a dreadful pity that such miserable stuff should be smeared all over the closing years of an incredible life.

[YankovicGretzky]

It's not going to take two years for this matter to go to court, is it?

[Snow (retired)]

So, Leonard's lawyers arranged for the sheriff to collect the 35 boxes of documents that Kelley Lynch took home from Leonard's offices.

1. Had these been pilfered over a period of time; in the boot of her car, for example - or did she hire a van to carry them away all in one go while Leonard was down the shop? I should imagine the latter, because his offices are notoriously spartan, so it's easy to see if something's suddenly missing. When photographers take pictures of him at work there is always only one little table, a kitchen stool and a phone - but these pictures might have been taken after Kelley had driven away.

2. Where in her house did she keep them - in a corner in the dining-room? Scattered all over the place (under the bed, on top of the wardrobe, at the back of the airing-cupboard, etc.)?

3. How did anyone know Kelley had the boxes at her house? Did Leonard see them through the window? Did Kelley's neighbours see her stumbling up and down her path late one night as she struggled with all of Leonard's gold discs, manuscripts, volumes of private letters from Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, etc?

4. What was Kelley going to do with it all - sell it bit by bit on eBay every time the rent was due or the electric bill came?

5. Were they proper wooden boxes or just cardboard boxes that Leonard had brought back from the shop? Were they small like shoe-boxes or large like those big Fyffes banana boxes?

6. If the sheriff now has them at his office or house are they kept off the ground so that the damp can't get to them?

7. How did anyone find out there were letters in there from Joni and Bob? Has the sheriff or his deputy been rummaging down into Leonard's private papers with their grubby fingers?

8. What was Leonard's reaction when he went to work one morning and saw his 35 boxes vanished? Did he suspect Kelley at once, or did he wonder if Anjani or Lorca had been doing some spring-cleaning and stacked them beside the rubbish bin out in the back yard?

9. When the sheriff came and rang on Kelley's door-bell did she open to him nicely and show him where the boxes were, or did she throw a fit and curse him and make one helluva scene that made the neighbours watch from behind their curtains?

10. How do we know there wasn't 36 boxes? Maybe Kelley hid one in the attic, or took handfuls of stuff out of each one and put it all between the joists under floorboards in the back bedroom.

[lizzytysh]

< * sorry. can't help it. * >


Some good points in there .


~ Lizzy

[mickey_one]

So, Leonard's lawyers .

hmm, slightly amusing.

how are you my friend? I thought you were banned.

I prefer your last icon but I can't remember what it was, take care

michael

[Snow (retired)]

mickey_one wrote:
>hmm, slightly amusing.

Yes, we are the living proof that Jews and Gentiles can live in harmony and have respect for one another. Unlike those farmers and burglars over there.

>how are you my friend? I thought you were banned.

Banned? Moi? Leonard would take the next plane to Finland and bend one of Jarkko's fingers back until he screamed.

>I prefer your last icon but I can't remember what it was, take care

Well, short-term memory loss should be taken seriously. Writing a diary every night instead of exercising your muscle will stop the old brain from rotting so quickly.

[mickey_one]

mickey_one wrote:
>hmm, slightly amusing.

Yes, we are the living proof that Jews and Gentiles can live in harmony and have respect for one another. Unlike those farmers and burglars over there.

>how are you my friend? I thought you were banned.

Banned? Moi? Leonard would take the next plane to Finland and bend one of Jarkko's fingers back until he screamed.

>I prefer your last icon but I can't remember what it was, take care

Well, short-term memory loss should be taken seriously. Writing a diary every night instead of exercising your muscle will stop the old brain from rotting so quickly.

Geoffers, it's not just my memory. Eyesight and hearing, oh hell...

[lizzytysh]

Actually, I found this list funny at this magnitude ~

However, I was trying to contain myself ~ with .

I mean how does one get hold of 35 boxes?

I considered, perhaps, that opposites attract and she kept them all in her massively-cluttered office. Or, perhaps s/he had them in a climate-controlled, rental, storage unit, her having a key, of course. After everything came down, Leonard went to get them out, and finding the unit bare, guess who on number 1 suspect.

Isn't idle speculation, well, idle?

[shadowrdr1]

Having spent time with Kelley Lynch, I can assure you that she is no where close to sane. This woman is a raving maniac and I am sure she did everything mentioned in the lawsuit. Having been in her home, a huge place in Mandaville Canyon, I can assure you that 35 boxes could be stored without anyone noticing. What I really don't understand is how Leonard let this obviously over the edge woman have access to his money and valuables.

SR

[lizzytysh]

Hi SR ~

Welcome to the Forum .

So, was I one-off with its actually being her massively-cluttered home... or simply her huge home... that allowed for the invisibility of 35 boxes?

~ Lizzy

[Young dr. Freud]

What I really don't understand is how Leonard let this obviously over the edge woman have access to his money and valuables.

Good question.




YdF

[Kevin W.M.LastYearsMan]

Shadow, if you know this Kelly Lynch lady, How? Were you friends, associates, or perhaps you had some other arrangements? Just Curious.

Come on. I know the rest of you wanted to ask that. For the record: I've never been to Kelly Lynch's house and I don't have snow's theorized thirty-sixth box.
Kevin