The so called "prophet of doom" had prophetized for himself with TNS's "I'm back on Boogey Street", this time.'Hope that his fame will help. Surely.
artist v. con-artist(s): an unhappy battle brewing
-
Tchocolatl
- Posts: 3805
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 10:07 pm
-
linda_lakeside
- Posts: 3857
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:08 pm
- Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..
Yes, his retirement money at age 70. As someone pointed out, it's a sure thing that he won't starve, but like they said, Leonard most likely had his financial plans in order for the remainder of his life - and after (family, etc.)
The really sad thing about these suits is that sometimes it takes years to sort out - and then lawyers to pay. Very, very unfortunate.
Linda.
The really sad thing about these suits is that sometimes it takes years to sort out - and then lawyers to pay. Very, very unfortunate.
Linda.
-
Adrian
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:23 am
- Location: Salt Spring Island, B.C. Canada
- Contact:
not in Kansas anymore...
Indeed, Leonard must deal not only with the loss of, reportedly, millions of dollars, but, also, the violation of the trust he placed in people.
It's a terrible thing.
And you need a surreal score-card to keep track of the players.
LC's attorney in this matter was a principal in a controversial scheme a few years back, to build a giant Oz theme park in Kansas. Citizens there formed a group, TOTO, an acronym for Taxpayers Opposed To Oz, and sued the U.S. government over the deal which collapsed in October 2001.
http://www.desotoexplorer.com/section/s ... story/3665
Further detail is to be found in this June 2000 item from the Kansas business journal, Ingram's:
http://www.ingramsonline.com/archive/00 ... unebtl.htm
Between The Lines
Smoke and Mirrors
By Jack Cashill
To clear a place for me to sit, Philip Klein picks up a life-size
gorilla suit off the couch and throws it in a pile in the corner. I
place my Coke alongside a miniaturized circus tent, and we begin to
talk. About Oz.
As manager of the world's largest magic shop, Klein can detect a sleight
of hand from the cheap seats. Sleight of hand is what he sees in the
proposed Oz theme park. And the cheap seats is where he sits -- a musty
office, shrouded in the inevitable faux wood paneling, amidst absurdly
deep piles of news clippings and circus paraphernalia, about as far from
the centers of Johnson County power as a non-homeless person can be.
Klein is slight, good natured, over-eager, and stunningly boyish for a
guy of forty. On an 83 degree day he wears rumpled corduroys and a
flannel shirt that should have been given to the blind about 15 washes
ago. If Klein's presence is not enough to nettle the self-important, his
voice surely must. The good Lord has blessed Klein with the most
annoying pipes in North America. When excited, which is always, Klein
sounds as if he's talking through a toilet paper roll. On radio talk
shows, where sound is the only medium, the voice lasers in like a one
pronged fork against the listener's inner blackboard.
Despite his modest resources, Klein has taken it upon himself to sue the
Kansas Development Finance Authority (KDFA) for failure under public
disclosure law to grant access to key Oz documents. To accomplish this
Klein has hired attorney Jeff Carey, a pleasant young guy who helps
filter some of the more entertaining screech out of Klein's accusations.
He never quite succeeds.
In a rough paraphrase of Winston Churchill, very rough, Klein calls the
proposed $771 million Oz theme park, "a scam within a scam within a
scam." The question he and Carey both pose is where is the money coming
from. They draw diagrams from one cut-out securities company to another
with detours through the Cayman Islands, and despite their best efforts,
they still can not come up with a satisfactory answer.
At first blush, one thinks Klein delusional. The developer, Hollywood
entertainment lawyer Robert Kory, is a major player, one who has secured
the blessing of the Kansas state legislature and much of the Johnson
County power elite for a Disney World scale project on 9,000-plus acres
of prime public land in Johnson County. As to Klein, he is just some
unknown clown. (Literally. He graduated from Ringling Brothers Clown
College.) Still, Klein does know a good deal about illusion, and when he
pulls back the Oz curtain, one gets a better view of the would be wizard
behind it.
A one time Transcendental Meditation honcho, Kory first surfaced in the
Kansas City area in 1989 as part of the Sandstone Entertainment Group.
In 1991, he joined up with former Lieutenant Governor Dave Owen and
restaurateur Gus Fasone to launch a 550 acre, OZ-oriented theme park in
western KCK. Projected cost $150-$300 million.
1991 must have been a busy year for a lawyer in Kory's position. While
guiding one set of partners on the road to Oz, he was cleaning up after
the other set back in KCK. The Sandstone Entertainment Group
reported losses of $600,000 that year and filed for Chapter 11
protection. Wyandotte County auditor Bob Brown asked to see the
financial records in June of 1991, but as of January 1992, "They were
still not forthcoming." If it takes one magician to spot another, Klein
marvels at Kory's ability to keep his audience in suspense.
At the same time, the Sandstone group was also mismanaging Memorial Hall
in KCK and were soon enough evicted from the premises. Kory acknowledged
problems but blamed his partners. Said Kory,
"I was not allowed to set the quality."
At about the same time Sandstone was in free fall, Kory and friends
managed to secure $450,000 in public money from KCK and the Board of
Public Utilities for a feasibility study for Oz. In February of 1993,
they received $100,000 more. Just a few months after the second grant,
the group had to remove partner Dave Owen from the project when he was
convicted of federal income tax fraud. Bummer.
In 1995, the $550,000 became an issue in the KCK Mayor's race. A mailer
was sent around the county accusing the Oz group of "thievery," claiming
that the money had been spent for a KCK steakhouse. What gave this
unfounded claim legs, as The Star reported, was that "no audit of the Oz
company finances or accounting of the grant funds has ever been made
public." Before Kory could pull this rabbit out of his hat, the FBI was
brought in to investigate.
Kory's partner in both Sandstone and Oz, Gus Fasone, claimed that the
money to remodel his "Oz-themed country western music bar and grill"
came not from the $550,000 grant but from a $300,000 Small Business
Administration (SBA) loan. One might wonder why the SBA would risk so
much public money on so bizarre a decorating scheme, but the agency did
substantiate Fasone's claim. And the FBI dropped its investigation.
After a few years of meandering, when even the politicos in KCK had
wearied of his act, Kory polished up his magic show and took it on the
road. In 1998, he somehow managed to convince the U.S. Army, the General
Service Administration, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,
the Kansas Development Finance Authority, and the Kansas legislature to
give him first crack at the nearly 15 square mile patch of prime
suburban real estate once occupied by the Sunflower Ammunition plant.
This, the legislature did by enabling the KDFA to authorize some $250
million in STAR bonds.
A slow motion look at this most astonishing of tricks might be in order.
Here's this cryptic character from LA, Kory, with so little visible
money he makes Miles Prentice look like Donald Trump. He has no
experience in developing theme parks and a dubious track record in
developing anything. He proposes to create a park that must somehow
capture twice the annual attendance of Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun
combined to prosper. And for as little as $30 million in clean up costs,
without any competitive bidding, he's awarded a Lenexa-sized chunk of
real estate with an estimated street value of nearly $1.5 billion. David
Copperfield, jump back.
To be fair, the Kansas House finally sensed that maybe this wasn't such
a great deal after all and threatened to repeal the $250 million bond
authorization. But before a final vote could be taken, the 119,000 voter
strong Kansas AFL-CIO weighed in and changed the thinking of some 18
legislators overnight. The measure promptly crashed.
Philip Klein does not accuse Kory and associates of illegality. What he
sees instead is the most epic and intricate public-private cluster
backscratch in recent history. With the legislature neutered, it is now
left to super citizens like Klein to figure out who's scratching whom
and how much it's going to cost Kansas taxpayers before the blood
finally runs dry.
In the meantime, the backscratchers will read flattering editorials
about themselves, give each other awards, snicker at Klein and others
like him, and think of new ways to risk public money on their own
private interests -- before Oz, as Klein predicts, eventually goes up in
smoke.
The views expressed in this column are the writer's own and do not
necessarily reflect those of Ingram's Magazine.
***
May there be more answers than question marks, soon!
Ad
It's a terrible thing.
And you need a surreal score-card to keep track of the players.
LC's attorney in this matter was a principal in a controversial scheme a few years back, to build a giant Oz theme park in Kansas. Citizens there formed a group, TOTO, an acronym for Taxpayers Opposed To Oz, and sued the U.S. government over the deal which collapsed in October 2001.
http://www.desotoexplorer.com/section/s ... story/3665
Further detail is to be found in this June 2000 item from the Kansas business journal, Ingram's:
http://www.ingramsonline.com/archive/00 ... unebtl.htm
Between The Lines
Smoke and Mirrors
By Jack Cashill
To clear a place for me to sit, Philip Klein picks up a life-size
gorilla suit off the couch and throws it in a pile in the corner. I
place my Coke alongside a miniaturized circus tent, and we begin to
talk. About Oz.
As manager of the world's largest magic shop, Klein can detect a sleight
of hand from the cheap seats. Sleight of hand is what he sees in the
proposed Oz theme park. And the cheap seats is where he sits -- a musty
office, shrouded in the inevitable faux wood paneling, amidst absurdly
deep piles of news clippings and circus paraphernalia, about as far from
the centers of Johnson County power as a non-homeless person can be.
Klein is slight, good natured, over-eager, and stunningly boyish for a
guy of forty. On an 83 degree day he wears rumpled corduroys and a
flannel shirt that should have been given to the blind about 15 washes
ago. If Klein's presence is not enough to nettle the self-important, his
voice surely must. The good Lord has blessed Klein with the most
annoying pipes in North America. When excited, which is always, Klein
sounds as if he's talking through a toilet paper roll. On radio talk
shows, where sound is the only medium, the voice lasers in like a one
pronged fork against the listener's inner blackboard.
Despite his modest resources, Klein has taken it upon himself to sue the
Kansas Development Finance Authority (KDFA) for failure under public
disclosure law to grant access to key Oz documents. To accomplish this
Klein has hired attorney Jeff Carey, a pleasant young guy who helps
filter some of the more entertaining screech out of Klein's accusations.
He never quite succeeds.
In a rough paraphrase of Winston Churchill, very rough, Klein calls the
proposed $771 million Oz theme park, "a scam within a scam within a
scam." The question he and Carey both pose is where is the money coming
from. They draw diagrams from one cut-out securities company to another
with detours through the Cayman Islands, and despite their best efforts,
they still can not come up with a satisfactory answer.
At first blush, one thinks Klein delusional. The developer, Hollywood
entertainment lawyer Robert Kory, is a major player, one who has secured
the blessing of the Kansas state legislature and much of the Johnson
County power elite for a Disney World scale project on 9,000-plus acres
of prime public land in Johnson County. As to Klein, he is just some
unknown clown. (Literally. He graduated from Ringling Brothers Clown
College.) Still, Klein does know a good deal about illusion, and when he
pulls back the Oz curtain, one gets a better view of the would be wizard
behind it.
A one time Transcendental Meditation honcho, Kory first surfaced in the
Kansas City area in 1989 as part of the Sandstone Entertainment Group.
In 1991, he joined up with former Lieutenant Governor Dave Owen and
restaurateur Gus Fasone to launch a 550 acre, OZ-oriented theme park in
western KCK. Projected cost $150-$300 million.
1991 must have been a busy year for a lawyer in Kory's position. While
guiding one set of partners on the road to Oz, he was cleaning up after
the other set back in KCK. The Sandstone Entertainment Group
reported losses of $600,000 that year and filed for Chapter 11
protection. Wyandotte County auditor Bob Brown asked to see the
financial records in June of 1991, but as of January 1992, "They were
still not forthcoming." If it takes one magician to spot another, Klein
marvels at Kory's ability to keep his audience in suspense.
At the same time, the Sandstone group was also mismanaging Memorial Hall
in KCK and were soon enough evicted from the premises. Kory acknowledged
problems but blamed his partners. Said Kory,
"I was not allowed to set the quality."
At about the same time Sandstone was in free fall, Kory and friends
managed to secure $450,000 in public money from KCK and the Board of
Public Utilities for a feasibility study for Oz. In February of 1993,
they received $100,000 more. Just a few months after the second grant,
the group had to remove partner Dave Owen from the project when he was
convicted of federal income tax fraud. Bummer.
In 1995, the $550,000 became an issue in the KCK Mayor's race. A mailer
was sent around the county accusing the Oz group of "thievery," claiming
that the money had been spent for a KCK steakhouse. What gave this
unfounded claim legs, as The Star reported, was that "no audit of the Oz
company finances or accounting of the grant funds has ever been made
public." Before Kory could pull this rabbit out of his hat, the FBI was
brought in to investigate.
Kory's partner in both Sandstone and Oz, Gus Fasone, claimed that the
money to remodel his "Oz-themed country western music bar and grill"
came not from the $550,000 grant but from a $300,000 Small Business
Administration (SBA) loan. One might wonder why the SBA would risk so
much public money on so bizarre a decorating scheme, but the agency did
substantiate Fasone's claim. And the FBI dropped its investigation.
After a few years of meandering, when even the politicos in KCK had
wearied of his act, Kory polished up his magic show and took it on the
road. In 1998, he somehow managed to convince the U.S. Army, the General
Service Administration, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,
the Kansas Development Finance Authority, and the Kansas legislature to
give him first crack at the nearly 15 square mile patch of prime
suburban real estate once occupied by the Sunflower Ammunition plant.
This, the legislature did by enabling the KDFA to authorize some $250
million in STAR bonds.
A slow motion look at this most astonishing of tricks might be in order.
Here's this cryptic character from LA, Kory, with so little visible
money he makes Miles Prentice look like Donald Trump. He has no
experience in developing theme parks and a dubious track record in
developing anything. He proposes to create a park that must somehow
capture twice the annual attendance of Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun
combined to prosper. And for as little as $30 million in clean up costs,
without any competitive bidding, he's awarded a Lenexa-sized chunk of
real estate with an estimated street value of nearly $1.5 billion. David
Copperfield, jump back.
To be fair, the Kansas House finally sensed that maybe this wasn't such
a great deal after all and threatened to repeal the $250 million bond
authorization. But before a final vote could be taken, the 119,000 voter
strong Kansas AFL-CIO weighed in and changed the thinking of some 18
legislators overnight. The measure promptly crashed.
Philip Klein does not accuse Kory and associates of illegality. What he
sees instead is the most epic and intricate public-private cluster
backscratch in recent history. With the legislature neutered, it is now
left to super citizens like Klein to figure out who's scratching whom
and how much it's going to cost Kansas taxpayers before the blood
finally runs dry.
In the meantime, the backscratchers will read flattering editorials
about themselves, give each other awards, snicker at Klein and others
like him, and think of new ways to risk public money on their own
private interests -- before Oz, as Klein predicts, eventually goes up in
smoke.
The views expressed in this column are the writer's own and do not
necessarily reflect those of Ingram's Magazine.
***
May there be more answers than question marks, soon!
Ad
"Why music?" "Why breathing?"
-
linda_lakeside
- Posts: 3857
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:08 pm
- Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..
Well, Adrian, 
Here it is, another one: http://www.desotoexplorer.com/section/s ... t/story/78
and complete Oz story here: http://www.ljworld.com/section/oz
Here it is, another one: http://www.desotoexplorer.com/section/s ... t/story/78
and complete Oz story here: http://www.ljworld.com/section/oz
Now I remember from where I knew Kory's name...
"dirt" indeed...
http://boulderdirt.com/x/news/article.cfm/3107A financial advisor from Boulder and his company are suing their former client, cult singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, for conspiring to extort money after he squandered away his investments.
Neal Greenberg and the Colorado investment company Agile Group allege, in a lawsuit filed last week in Boulder District Court, that Cohen is damaging Greenberg and the group's reputations in order to extort millions of dollars.
The suit states Cohen and Robert Kory - the former husband of Cohen's girlfriend, singer Anjani - "already have taken similar action to 'crush' others who stand in the way of their scheme, and thus their threats against Greenberg are credible and serious."
Cohen and Kory falsely claim that Agile is responsible for the squandering of $8 million of Cohen's investment funds by Cohen's former manager, according to the suit.
The former manager, only identified in the suit as Lynch, has been bullied by the duo to make negative statements against Greenberg and Agile or face being cut off financially, lose her children to Social Services and have two paroled convicts make statements they had seen her older son threaten to kill someone with a gun, according to the lawsuit.
Cohen, 70, began his career as a poet and novelist. The Montreal native broke into the music business in the 1960s with his lyrical folk music, including songs such as "Suzanne" and "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" - a song about Janis Joplin. Cohen's work reached new audiences in the 1990s when singer Jeff Buckley covered the songwriter's 1985 cut "Hallelujah."
Kory was identified by Lisa Simon, spokeswoman for the plaintiffs, as an entertainment attorney best known for his failed effort to build an "Oz" theme park in Kansas.
Agile manages more than $550 million in funds for more than 400 clients, and Greenberg is its principal, Simon reported in a statement.
Cohen and Kory could not be reached for comment.
Greenberg's attorney, David Chipman, referred calls to Agile's New York attorney Sherab Posel, who did not return a reporter's call.
"dirt" indeed...
-
Adrian
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:23 am
- Location: Salt Spring Island, B.C. Canada
- Contact:
Alas, not good news as Linda says...
Still more on Oz:
http://www.pitch.com/search/results?sea ... &Submit=GO
and another link:
http://www.behind-the-tm-facade.org/tra ... ligion.htm
Still more on Oz:
http://www.pitch.com/search/results?sea ... &Submit=GO
and another link:
http://www.behind-the-tm-facade.org/tra ... ligion.htm
"Why music?" "Why breathing?"
-
linda_lakeside
- Posts: 3857
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:08 pm
- Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..
Anjani's former husband? Curiouser and curiouser. It's hard to tell at this point what is blatant manipulation, or just misinformation or just ****.
Like I said before, this could take years.
Linda.
I don't remember the publication, but I wish they'd found a better picture of Leonard! Leonard and the word 'cult'. Then the word 'crushing'. I can't see Leonard 'crushing' anyone or anything. Bizarre.
Like I said before, this could take years.
Linda.
I don't remember the publication, but I wish they'd found a better picture of Leonard! Leonard and the word 'cult'. Then the word 'crushing'. I can't see Leonard 'crushing' anyone or anything. Bizarre.
-
Young dr. Freud
- Posts: 667
- Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2002 2:41 am
Not good. My brief analysis: Kory is the type of man who knows how to spot a meal ticket. He's able to spot your weakest point (and the weak point is always VANITY) and exploit it. He's just the type to impress "deep" people. "Deep" calls to "Deep." All that, "Oh, Leonard, you're so wise" BS. Even if there's a foundation for the lawsuit against Agile, Leonard is in a mess with this guy. Never let the guy who is the former husband of your girlfriend be your lawyer. It's like being your own lawyer. You've got a fool for a client.
Too, too bad. Not just the missing money but the destroyed trust and friendships. I suspect if this suit goes forward, we're going to learn a lot more about Leonard and Co. And it ain't all going to be good. Disheartening.
YdF
P.S. Maybe this is why Leonard is going on tour. He's got to pay his lawyer.
Too, too bad. Not just the missing money but the destroyed trust and friendships. I suspect if this suit goes forward, we're going to learn a lot more about Leonard and Co. And it ain't all going to be good. Disheartening.
YdF
P.S. Maybe this is why Leonard is going on tour. He's got to pay his lawyer.
Police and Courts - June 15
June 15, 2005
BOULDER COUNTY
Singer Cohen fires back at lawsuit
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen says a lawsuit filed against him by a
Boulder investment firm came amid settlement negotiations "in an effort
to besmirch the reputation of one of its notable clients."
The suit was filed in Boulder District Court earlier this month by his
former financial adviser, Neal Greenberg, and Colorado investment
company Agile Group. They claim Cohen squandered away his investments, then tried to damage their reputation to extort millions of dollars.
Cohen's attorneys and public relations firm fired back with a statement
Tuesday.
"We had hoped to reach an out-of-court settlement with Agile that
returned to Mr. Cohen some portion of the retirement money the firm was
authorized to administer on his behalf," it said. "Instead, in the
middle of negotiations to determine Agile's responsibilities to Mr.
Cohen to compensate him for money lost under their management, Agile
launched a surprise attack."
Cohen's attorneys said they plan to file a counter suit to "detail how
Agile acted in a reckless way that violated the firm's fiduciary
responsibilities towards Cohen and consequently resulted in the loss of
Mr. Cohen's retirement savings."
Camera Staff Writer Christine Reid contributed to this report
June 15, 2005
BOULDER COUNTY
Singer Cohen fires back at lawsuit
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen says a lawsuit filed against him by a
Boulder investment firm came amid settlement negotiations "in an effort
to besmirch the reputation of one of its notable clients."
The suit was filed in Boulder District Court earlier this month by his
former financial adviser, Neal Greenberg, and Colorado investment
company Agile Group. They claim Cohen squandered away his investments, then tried to damage their reputation to extort millions of dollars.
Cohen's attorneys and public relations firm fired back with a statement
Tuesday.
"We had hoped to reach an out-of-court settlement with Agile that
returned to Mr. Cohen some portion of the retirement money the firm was
authorized to administer on his behalf," it said. "Instead, in the
middle of negotiations to determine Agile's responsibilities to Mr.
Cohen to compensate him for money lost under their management, Agile
launched a surprise attack."
Cohen's attorneys said they plan to file a counter suit to "detail how
Agile acted in a reckless way that violated the firm's fiduciary
responsibilities towards Cohen and consequently resulted in the loss of
Mr. Cohen's retirement savings."
Camera Staff Writer Christine Reid contributed to this report
-
linda_lakeside
- Posts: 3857
- Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:08 pm
- Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..
-
Adrian
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:23 am
- Location: Salt Spring Island, B.C. Canada
- Contact:
A business journalist with The Age, the leading daily broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, has done a neat job of bringing together various threads of this story. Malcolm Maiden's blog at The Age even refers to this site (http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com) as "the definitive chronicle of Cohen's genius". Kudos to Jarkko ( :
Now, if only the news wasn't so tragic
http://blogs.theage.com.au/malcontent/a ... ard_1.html
Lawsuit: Leonard Cohen hits back
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 03:42 PM
Malcontent reported last week that musician and legend Leonard Cohen
was being sued by a Colorado investment company, Agile Group, alleging
Cohen and another person threatened to irreparably damage Agile's
reputation in order to extort millions of dollars from Agile and its
insurer.
Now the Cohen camp has hit back. In a statement emailed by an industry
rep to MalContent, Leonard Cohen's lawyer, Robert Kory, says Agile's law
suit is consistent with Agile's "reckless disregard for its client and
his investments.''
Kory adds that Agile "repeatedly failed to alert Mr. Cohen to true
account balances while allowing improper and unauthorized withdrawals by
Cohen's former business manager...we will of course file a counter suit
that lays out in detail how Agile acted in a reckless way..."
Read the Cohen Camp's reply in Latest Comments, to the right.
Read the whole saga here.
And the definitive chronicle of Cohen's genius is here.
This is not your average investment-funds management brawl. One of the
curious common themes is eastern religion. One of the odd connections is
the Wizard Of Oz.
Cohen, born into a Jewish family in Montreal, became interested in
Buddhism in the seventies, and was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1996.
Agile's Principal, Neal Greenberg, is this Sunday throwing his Boulder,
Colorado mansion open for a fund raising event - "tea, refreshments,
art, and dharma" on behalf of The Light of Berotsana Translation Group,
which is "dedicated to furthering the study and preservation of classic
Tibetan Buddhist literature."
And Cohen's lawyer, Robert Kory is a one-time advocate Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation (TM), the meditation programme that swept to word fame in the sixties when pop icons including The Beatles briefly embraced it. John Lennon said his song "Sexy Sadie" was actually about the Maharishi.
TM promotes itself as "the single most effective meditation technique
available for gaining deep relaxation, eliminating stress, promoting
health, increasing creativity and intelligence, and attaining inner
happiness and fulfillment."
Kory worked for TM in the 1970s, according to media reports, and TM
informed at least one of a series of self help books he wrote and
co-wrote in the 70s and 80s - "The Transcendental Meditation program for
Business People".
Kory was also a defendant, along with the Maharishi, in a civil court
case that found that Transcendental meditation was a religion, and
therefore not able to be taught at US Schools. Details of that decision
here.
Kory also headed a development company, Oz Entertainment Co, that fought a long and ultimately unsuccessful battle to win approval for an $US800 million-plus theme park development in Kansas based on the Wizard of Oz.
The development was opposed by a group of citizens who called themselves TOTO - Taxpayers Opposed To Oz.
The theme park development was rejected by local government aithorities
in November 2001, read that here.
Details of the labrynthine battle over the Oz theme park are here.
Now, if only the news wasn't so tragic
http://blogs.theage.com.au/malcontent/a ... ard_1.html
Lawsuit: Leonard Cohen hits back
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 03:42 PM
Malcontent reported last week that musician and legend Leonard Cohen
was being sued by a Colorado investment company, Agile Group, alleging
Cohen and another person threatened to irreparably damage Agile's
reputation in order to extort millions of dollars from Agile and its
insurer.
Now the Cohen camp has hit back. In a statement emailed by an industry
rep to MalContent, Leonard Cohen's lawyer, Robert Kory, says Agile's law
suit is consistent with Agile's "reckless disregard for its client and
his investments.''
Kory adds that Agile "repeatedly failed to alert Mr. Cohen to true
account balances while allowing improper and unauthorized withdrawals by
Cohen's former business manager...we will of course file a counter suit
that lays out in detail how Agile acted in a reckless way..."
Read the Cohen Camp's reply in Latest Comments, to the right.
Read the whole saga here.
And the definitive chronicle of Cohen's genius is here.
This is not your average investment-funds management brawl. One of the
curious common themes is eastern religion. One of the odd connections is
the Wizard Of Oz.
Cohen, born into a Jewish family in Montreal, became interested in
Buddhism in the seventies, and was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1996.
Agile's Principal, Neal Greenberg, is this Sunday throwing his Boulder,
Colorado mansion open for a fund raising event - "tea, refreshments,
art, and dharma" on behalf of The Light of Berotsana Translation Group,
which is "dedicated to furthering the study and preservation of classic
Tibetan Buddhist literature."
And Cohen's lawyer, Robert Kory is a one-time advocate Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation (TM), the meditation programme that swept to word fame in the sixties when pop icons including The Beatles briefly embraced it. John Lennon said his song "Sexy Sadie" was actually about the Maharishi.
TM promotes itself as "the single most effective meditation technique
available for gaining deep relaxation, eliminating stress, promoting
health, increasing creativity and intelligence, and attaining inner
happiness and fulfillment."
Kory worked for TM in the 1970s, according to media reports, and TM
informed at least one of a series of self help books he wrote and
co-wrote in the 70s and 80s - "The Transcendental Meditation program for
Business People".
Kory was also a defendant, along with the Maharishi, in a civil court
case that found that Transcendental meditation was a religion, and
therefore not able to be taught at US Schools. Details of that decision
here.
Kory also headed a development company, Oz Entertainment Co, that fought a long and ultimately unsuccessful battle to win approval for an $US800 million-plus theme park development in Kansas based on the Wizard of Oz.
The development was opposed by a group of citizens who called themselves TOTO - Taxpayers Opposed To Oz.
The theme park development was rejected by local government aithorities
in November 2001, read that here.
Details of the labrynthine battle over the Oz theme park are here.
Last edited by Adrian on Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Why music?" "Why breathing?"
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