one piece of archive footage a day: somebody certain about money, and what it cost
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Versivald retweeted
A tech company sued Kanye West for more than $10 million. Then they put him under oath.
MyChannel said it built the tech for Kanye's Yeezy online store in 2018. It said Kanye backed out of the deal and used its idea anyway, without paying.
In June 2021 the company's lawyer questioned him over Zoom. That video is below.
Asked to put his phone away: "Due to my mental geniusness, in order to focus on this bulls**t, I need to be on a phone."
Asked what was in the room: "I got a chair in the room. You are talking to the richest Black person in the history of America."
Then he put on a mask with Jesus on it and said the lawyer had no right to see his face. Court filings say he called the lawyer "boy" 12 times. He left after about 10 minutes.
MyChannel asked the judge to fine him $62,725 for wrecking the deposition.
It never got that far. Three months later both sides dropped it. Each paid its own lawyers.
One thing to keep in mind: no court ever ruled that Kanye took anything. He denied it, and the case ended with no verdict and no payout either way.
One side says a billionaire treated a $10 million lawsuit like a joke because he could afford to.
The other side says the case was weak, and he refused to play along with it.
So did Kanye win by walking out, or did he just prove the rich play by different rules?
A tech company sued Kanye West for more than $10 million. Then they put him under oath.
MyChannel said it built the tech for Kanye's Yeezy online store in 2018. It said Kanye backed out of the deal and used its idea anyway, without paying.
In June 2021 the company's lawyer questioned him over Zoom. That video is below.
Asked to put his phone away: "Due to my mental geniusness, in order to focus on this bulls**t, I need to be on a phone."
Asked what was in the room: "I got a chair in the room. You are talking to the richest Black person in the history of America."
Then he put on a mask with Jesus on it and said the lawyer had no right to see his face. Court filings say he called the lawyer "boy" 12 times. He left after about 10 minutes.
MyChannel asked the judge to fine him $62,725 for wrecking the deposition.
It never got that far. Three months later both sides dropped it. Each paid its own lawyers.
One thing to keep in mind: no court ever ruled that Kanye took anything. He denied it, and the case ended with no verdict and no payout either way.
One side says a billionaire treated a $10 million lawsuit like a joke because he could afford to.
The other side says the case was weak, and he refused to play along with it.
So did Kanye win by walking out, or did he just prove the rich play by different rules?
Cardi B told a jury a security guard was suing her for $24 million. By closing arguments, the guard's own lawyer asked for $250,000 plus medical bills. The jury gave the guard $0.
Cardi's lawyer told the jury: "She claims that Cardi mauled her, basically cut her face, and this woman went home, and what did she do? She took a nap."
February 24, 2018: Cardi, secretly pregnant with her first child, came to a Beverly Hills obstetrician's office.
Emani Ellis, a security guard in the building, said Cardi cut her cheek with a fingernail and spat on her. Cardi said Ellis was filming her.
Ellis lost her job and sued. Her lawsuit named no total. On the stand, Cardi said she was "suing me for $24 million."
Cardi admitted they screamed at each other. "She didn't hit me. I didn't hit her. There was no touch."
September 2, 2025: six men and six women deliberated about an hour. Nine votes were enough. All 12 found her not liable.
The key testimony is in the file attached.
Ellis's side: she says the scratch sent her to a plastic surgeon and one hallway fight cost her a job.
Cardi's side: the doctor who stepped in said he did not notice any injury on Ellis's cheek.
So did Cardi B owe her some of that $250,000, or was $0 the right answer to a $24 million claim?
Versivald retweeted
Lenny Dykstra said he was worth $58 million. One year later, he had $50,000.
His bankruptcy filing listed debts of more than $31 million.
He made at least $36.5 million playing Major League Baseball. He bought Wayne Gretzky's mansion for $17.5 million.
Then the payments on that house hit about $200,000 a month.
In the video below, sitting outside that mansion, he tells CNBC: "I filed Chapter 11. That's reorganization. That's not bankruptcy. I'm not bankrupt."
When the reporter asks if he really only has $50,000, he says: "I don't know how they fill that stuff out. All I do is I tell the truth."
In 2012 he was sentenced to federal prison for bankruptcy fraud, concealing assets and money laundering.
Was Lenny Dykstra a victim of the banks, or did he lie to himself the whole way down?
Lenny Dykstra said he was worth $58 million. One year later, he had $50,000.
His bankruptcy filing listed debts of more than $31 million.
He made at least $36.5 million playing Major League Baseball. He bought Wayne Gretzky's mansion for $17.5 million.
Then the payments on that house hit about $200,000 a month.
In the video below, sitting outside that mansion, he tells CNBC: "I filed Chapter 11. That's reorganization. That's not bankruptcy. I'm not bankrupt."
When the reporter asks if he really only has $50,000, he says: "I don't know how they fill that stuff out. All I do is I tell the truth."
In 2012 he was sentenced to federal prison for bankruptcy fraud, concealing assets and money laundering.
Was Lenny Dykstra a victim of the banks, or did he lie to himself the whole way down?
Versivald retweeted
A radio DJ sued Taylor Swift for up to $3 million. She asked a jury for $1. She won, and he got $0.
On the stand, she told his lawyer: "I'm not going to allow you or your client to make me feel in any way that this is my fault, because it isn't."
June 2013: Swift, then 23, posed for a backstage photo in Denver with KYGO morning host David Mueller, then 51.
She said he reached under her skirt. "It was a definite grab. A very long grab."
Two days later, the station fired him after its own investigation. The job paid $150,000 a year.
2015: Mueller sued Swift, her mother and her radio promoter Frank Bell. He denied the grope and said they got him fired.
Swift countersued for assault and battery. Her ask: $1.
August 11, 2017: the judge threw out his claims against Swift herself.
August 14, 2017: six women and two men deliberated fewer than four hours. They found he assaulted and battered her, and that her mother and Bell did not cost him his job.
The trial record is in the paper below.
Her lawyer called it "a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation."
Mueller's side: he denied it to the end and lost a $150,000-a-year job.
Swift's side: she asked for none of his money, only a jury saying it happened.
He wanted up to $3 million. She wanted $1. Was her $1 the smarter move, or should she have hit back for millions?
A radio DJ sued Taylor Swift for up to $3 million. She asked a jury for $1. She won, and he got $0.
On the stand, she told his lawyer: "I'm not going to allow you or your client to make me feel in any way that this is my fault, because it isn't."
June 2013: Swift, then 23, posed for a backstage photo in Denver with KYGO morning host David Mueller, then 51.
She said he reached under her skirt. "It was a definite grab. A very long grab."
Two days later, the station fired him after its own investigation. The job paid $150,000 a year.
2015: Mueller sued Swift, her mother and her radio promoter Frank Bell. He denied the grope and said they got him fired.
Swift countersued for assault and battery. Her ask: $1.
August 11, 2017: the judge threw out his claims against Swift herself.
August 14, 2017: six women and two men deliberated fewer than four hours. They found he assaulted and battered her, and that her mother and Bell did not cost him his job.
The trial record is in the paper below.
Her lawyer called it "a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation."
Mueller's side: he denied it to the end and lost a $150,000-a-year job.
Swift's side: she asked for none of his money, only a jury saying it happened.
He wanted up to $3 million. She wanted $1. Was her $1 the smarter move, or should she have hit back for millions?
Versivald retweeted
Ja Rule made more than $3 million between 2004 and 2006 and didn't pay taxes on it. Then he sat down on camera and explained exactly how he did it.
It started with one simple move when he booked shows.
A promoter offers 250 for a show. He says: put 200 on the books and hand me the other 50 in cash.
"In my mind, that 50 is free cash."
He kept it up until it added up to $3 million.
In 2011 he pleaded guilty to the tax case in a federal court in Newark.
By the time the judge sentenced him, he was already serving a state gun sentence in New York.
The judge gave him 28 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $1.1 million in unpaid taxes.
He walked into that courtroom in a yellow prison jumpsuit and manacles. He was a father of three, married to his high-school sweetheart.
The judge let most of that time run alongside his state sentence.
In court his excuse was simple: he was a young man with a lot of money and nobody to guide him.
What would you have done with that 50 in cash if you were in his place?
Ja Rule made more than $3 million between 2004 and 2006 and didn't pay taxes on it. Then he sat down on camera and explained exactly how he did it.
It started with one simple move when he booked shows.
A promoter offers 250 for a show. He says: put 200 on the books and hand me the other 50 in cash.
"In my mind, that 50 is free cash."
He kept it up until it added up to $3 million.
In 2011 he pleaded guilty to the tax case in a federal court in Newark.
By the time the judge sentenced him, he was already serving a state gun sentence in New York.
The judge gave him 28 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $1.1 million in unpaid taxes.
He walked into that courtroom in a yellow prison jumpsuit and manacles. He was a father of three, married to his high-school sweetheart.
The judge let most of that time run alongside his state sentence.
In court his excuse was simple: he was a young man with a lot of money and nobody to guide him.
What would you have done with that 50 in cash if you were in his place?
A Christian rapper asked a jury for nearly $20 million from Katy Perry over "Dark Horse." He won $2.78 million. Then he got $0.
Her expert told the jury a similar note pattern shows up in "Merrily We Roll Along," which has the same tune as "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
2008: Marcus Gray, known as Flame, put out "Joyful Noise."
2013: Perry put out "Dark Horse." It became a No. 1 hit.
2014: he sued Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Capitol Records. Her side said they had never heard his song.
July 2019: his lawyers told the jury Capitol took in more than $31 million from the single, the album and the concert DVD. Capitol said its profit was about $650,000. Perry's side said $360,000 was fair.
August 1, 2019: the jury said pay $2.78 million. Perry's own share was $550,000.
March 2020: the judge threw it out. She called the notes "not a particularly unique or rare combination."
March 10, 2022: the appeals court agreed 3-0. The beat was "entirely of commonplace musical elements."
I wrote up the full record below.
The case for Flame: nine jurors heard both songs and found Perry's team copied his.
The case for Perry: two courts said this eight-note pattern was too basic for anyone to own.
So did Flame deserve some of that $2.78 million, or were the courts right to give him $0?
Blac Chyna asked a jury for as much as $108 million from Kris Jenner, Kim, Khloe and Kylie. She got $0.
The jury found the family often acted in bad faith. When the verdict was read, all four were at the Met Gala.
Chyna was engaged to Rob Kardashian. Their show, Rob & Chyna, aired one season on E! in 2016.
December 2016: the fight. Rob testified she twice held a gun to his head and wrapped a phone cord around his neck. She testified she held the gun playfully.
2017: she sued, saying the family got Season 2 killed. Her lawyers put it at $40 million in lost earnings and more than $60 million in future earnings, at $92,500 an episode.
Then the texts came out. Kris to the showrunner: "Take her off." On the stand, Kris said: "There was nothing to cancel."
May 2, 2022: no defamation, no interference, no damages.
I wrote up the full record below.
The case for Chyna: a jury agreed they acted in bad faith, and Kris texted "Take her off."
The case for the Kardashians: E! said the show ended because the relationship ended.
So was Blac Chyna owed some of that $108 million, or did the jury get it right at $0?
Versivald retweeted
Al Capone made an estimated $100 million a year, and the only thing the government could ever pin on him was $215,000 in unpaid taxes.
that was nearly $1.4 billion in 2016 money, and at one point in the 1920s he was paying police $500,000 a month to let him run his liquor business.
in 1929 he was arrested in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed gun and locked up in Eastern State Penitentiary, where a local paper photographed his cell that August. the prison still shows a recreation of it with rugs, paintings, an elegant writing desk and a large radio.
he was never charged over the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, so the Treasury went after his taxes instead. on October 18, 1931 a jury convicted him, and the judge gave him eleven years in federal prison, a $50,000 fine and $215,000 plus interest in back taxes.
he served seven and a half years in Atlanta and Alcatraz, and by the time he was released in November 1939, syphilis had left him badly deteriorated. he spent his last years on his Palm Island estate near Miami, where he died at 48 of a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.
his granddaughter Diane was 3 when he died. in October 2021 she and her two sisters sold 174 family heirlooms for more than $3.1 million, including his favorite Colt .45 for $860,000 and a letter he wrote his son from Alcatraz for $45,000.
in the video below, Diane tells CBS News about that gun: "This gun was kind of his protection, and I think it saved his life on a number of occasions, and so he called it his sweetheart."
in the same CBS report, a former California prosecutor whose sister was murdered in 1979 said, "We should not profit off what I would call blood money."
an $860,000 gun sold by a gangster's granddaughters: family history or blood money?
Al Capone made an estimated $100 million a year, and the only thing the government could ever pin on him was $215,000 in unpaid taxes.
that was nearly $1.4 billion in 2016 money, and at one point in the 1920s he was paying police $500,000 a month to let him run his liquor business.
in 1929 he was arrested in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed gun and locked up in Eastern State Penitentiary, where a local paper photographed his cell that August. the prison still shows a recreation of it with rugs, paintings, an elegant writing desk and a large radio.
he was never charged over the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, so the Treasury went after his taxes instead. on October 18, 1931 a jury convicted him, and the judge gave him eleven years in federal prison, a $50,000 fine and $215,000 plus interest in back taxes.
he served seven and a half years in Atlanta and Alcatraz, and by the time he was released in November 1939, syphilis had left him badly deteriorated. he spent his last years on his Palm Island estate near Miami, where he died at 48 of a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.
his granddaughter Diane was 3 when he died. in October 2021 she and her two sisters sold 174 family heirlooms for more than $3.1 million, including his favorite Colt .45 for $860,000 and a letter he wrote his son from Alcatraz for $45,000.
in the video below, Diane tells CBS News about that gun: "This gun was kind of his protection, and I think it saved his life on a number of occasions, and so he called it his sweetheart."
in the same CBS report, a former California prosecutor whose sister was murdered in 1979 said, "We should not profit off what I would call blood money."
an $860,000 gun sold by a gangster's granddaughters: family history or blood money?
Versivald retweeted
The US government sued Lance Armstrong for $100 million to get back what the Postal Service paid his team.
His lawyers answered with the Postal Service's own studies: the sponsorship was worth $103.6 million to it.
In the video below, Armstrong tells CNBC: "Once you total up all of it... it came to 111 million bucks. So yeah, I didn't feel like I got off easy."
The Postal Service paid $32.3 million to put its name on his jersey from 2000 to 2004. He won the Tour de France every one of those years.
Then he confessed to doping on Oprah in 2013, and the government joined a lawsuit his former teammate Floyd Landis had filed. Under the False Claims Act, damages can be tripled. That is how $32.3 million became $100 million.
The government's side: the Postal Service would never have paid if it had known the team was cheating.
His side: the agency got far more than it spent. One of its own memos called the deal possibly its most effective PR venture ever.
In April 2018, days before trial, he settled for $5 million, plus $1.65 million for Landis's legal fees.
So did Lance cheat taxpayers out of $32.3 million, or did the Postal Service get $103.6 million of value and sue anyway?
Johnny Carson's wife asked for $2.64 million a year in support. Over the next five years and four months, she got $2.24 million.
Her court list of monthly needs included $42,000 for clothes, furs and jewelry. Groceries were $1,400.
Her explanation, in court papers: "Throughout the course of our marriage I have dressed stylishly."
They married in September 1972. Both filed for divorce in March 1983.
She put his worth at about $60 million and his income at $1.5 million a month. She asked for $220,000 a month, including $6,000 a month for gifts to friends and relatives.
Then her lawyer went further. He argued she deserved more than half of their property, because Carson's fame had grown during the marriage. The court rejected it.
February 1984: his side said she got about 10 percent of what she asked for.
August 1985: $35,000 a month for 64 months, plus the Bel-Air house, three New York apartments, a Picasso and 75 gold Krugerrands.
I wrote up the full record below.
The case for Joanna: ten years married to a man earning $1.5 million a month.
The case for Johnny: she asked for $42,000 a month in clothes.
So was $2.64 million a year a fair ask, or did Johnny Carson get off cheap at $35,000 a month?
Jerry Hall reportedly wanted $50 million of Mick Jagger's estimated $250 million fortune. She got about $15.5 million, after his side argued they had never been legally married.
Their Bali wedding had a Hindu priest and a black chicken sacrificed to purify the house. A London judge needed 30 minutes to rule it never counted.
They met backstage in 1977. He was still married to Bianca.
November 21, 1990: the ceremony in Ubud, Bali.
January 1999: she filed after Brazilian model Luciana Morad revealed she was pregnant by him.
She hired the lawyers who had represented Princess Diana. His side said they had never been properly married, so there was nothing to divorce. Experts told the court the ceremony was never registered.
Years earlier, pregnant with his child, she told David Letterman: "We plan on getting married. We probably should have done it before, but we just haven't ever gotten around to it."
I wrote up the full timeline below.
August 1999: the marriage was declared null and void.
The case for Mick: no registration, no legal marriage, and she signed off on it.
The case for Jerry: more than two decades, four children, and a wedding she swore had "all the usual hallmarks."
So did Jerry Hall get a fair $15.5 million, or did Mick Jagger keep the other $34.5 million she asked for on a technicality?
The US government sued Lance Armstrong for $100 million to get back what the Postal Service paid his team.
His lawyers answered with the Postal Service's own studies: the sponsorship was worth $103.6 million to it.
In the video below, Armstrong tells CNBC: "Once you total up all of it... it came to 111 million bucks. So yeah, I didn't feel like I got off easy."
The Postal Service paid $32.3 million to put its name on his jersey from 2000 to 2004. He won the Tour de France every one of those years.
Then he confessed to doping on Oprah in 2013, and the government joined a lawsuit his former teammate Floyd Landis had filed. Under the False Claims Act, damages can be tripled. That is how $32.3 million became $100 million.
The government's side: the Postal Service would never have paid if it had known the team was cheating.
His side: the agency got far more than it spent. One of its own memos called the deal possibly its most effective PR venture ever.
In April 2018, days before trial, he settled for $5 million, plus $1.65 million for Landis's legal fees.
So did Lance cheat taxpayers out of $32.3 million, or did the Postal Service get $103.6 million of value and sue anyway?
Marilyn Monroe left her own mother a $100,000 trust. Decades later, a woman her will never mentions sold control of Marilyn's name for an estimated $20 to $30 million.
Monroe died in 1962 at 36. Her will gave 75% of what remained to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg.
Strasberg remarried in the late 1960s. When he died in 1982, his share, including the rights to her name and image, went to his widow, Anna.
Anna turned Marilyn into a brand: 1,975 licensing deals in 20 years. In 2011 she sold control to Authentic Brands. Marilyn products now sell about $80 million a year.
I wrote up who got what.
The case for Anna: Monroe chose Strasberg, and the brand grew under his widow.
The case against: Monroe never chose her.
Should a star's name follow the will, or go back to her family?
Versivald retweeted
Kim Kardashian says she paid for most of her $2 million engagement ring. To give her a divorce, Kris Humphries made her hand it back.
In the video below, she tells Khloé on The Kardashians: "I was pregnant with North, still married to him, and in order to divorce him, he said I had to give him the ring in my divorce."
Her version: he paid "a fifth."
They married in August 2011, in a wedding filmed for E!. She filed for divorce 72 days later.
Humphries didn't want a divorce. He asked for an annulment, claiming the wedding was a fraud staged for TV. He reportedly also asked for $7 million.
The case took 536 days. In April 2013 he dropped the fraud claim and got no money.
That October, the ring went up at Christie's. It sold for $749,000.
His side has a point. In 2011 Kim said: "I would never marry for a TV show, for money." In 2021 she admitted: "We're filming this for a TV show. If I leave, I'm going to be known as the runaway bride forever."
Humphries called the marriage "100% real." After the split, he was booed at Madison Square Garden: "I wasn't a real person. I was That Guy."
So did Humphries earn that $2 million ring, or did Kim pay for her own way out?