Pryor Cashman LLP - The mystery of a letter allegedly written by Frank P. Scibilia in October 2015

>> PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

INTRODUCTION:

Pryor Cashman LLP (7 TIMES SQUARE, 40TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10036) is a "New York law firm with sophisticated litigation, corporate, intellectual property, entertainment, real estate, bankruptcy, tax, employment, immigration and family law practices", as stated on their official website. One of the partners is Frank P. Scibilia and he is "a member of Pryor Cashman's Litigation, Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment and Digital Media Groups".

Doing business as Blue2Digital throughout the period 2012-2015, our company VIDYPS 79 d.o.o. operated as a music distribution service with the aim of connecting its clients with multiple digital music platforms including Vevo, Google Play, Spotify and many others. These services demanded that all the agreements and payments for the digital music sales be made through Merlin B.V., a company formally headquartered in the Netherlands (Europe), but actually run in the United Kingdom.

Frank Scibilia at Pryor Cashman was introduced as a Merlin's attorney in October 2015.

INTRODUCING THE ISSUE:

In April 2015 one of the most valued music video platforms, Vevo, sent us the royalty reports for January 2015 that did not reflect the actual number of views generated from the videos owned by Blue2Digital's clients for that month. It tended to become a serious issue as millions of views were missing from the reports, so Vladimir Milicev, CEO of Blue2Digital contacted Merlin and asked for more details on the matter.

All our clients became familiar with the issue and so did John Guerrier De'Bey a.k.a. Sean Thurman, who I knew he had good connections with one of Vevo's major owners, Universal Music Group. Incredibly quickly, without asking for any formal document from De'Bey to prove his title, Charlie Lexton, Head of Business Affairs at Merlin B.V. accepted John De'Bey as a "VIDYPS Representative", which caught us all by surprise.

In June 2015 De'Bey and Milicev received a very confused and messy email from Charlie Lexton, who explained that there was a technical error with the embedded software which counted streams and it means that - believe it or not - VIDYPS 79 was "overpaid" in the past and Merlin had the right to confiscate all the unpaid royalties VIDYPS 79 had with them. The Membership Agreement we had with Merlin did not envisage any possibilty of "triggering" one's liability or confiscating our company's earnings prior to exposing evidence to assert as a position in the argument, so we took it as an issue as big as the one we had with Vevo.

ALSO READ:

.:: Why did VEVO actually shut down its on-demand video streaming website and apps?

.:: Merlin Network - Are they intent on taking the control of the flow of revenues shared between the music platforms, indie artists and labels?

.:: Meet the guys from New York who fabricate invoices, court decisions, official corporate, federal, state and court documents

.:: Should we expect the Government to address issues related to one's fraudulent activity?

INTRODUCING PRYOR CASHMAN LLP:

All at sudden on October 15, 2015, for some reasons still left unknown, Charlie Lexton sent an email introducing Frank Scibilia from Pryor Cashman LLP, a New York based law firm. Neither Merlin B.V. was a New York based company nor it was VIDYPS 79 d.o.o., which made it unclear why a law firm from New York was introduced at all. Apparently, it was done because of the aforementioned John De'Bey who was from New York as well as to put pressure on Mr. Milicev as his company would be processed by a "world famous, ingenious experts" from Times Square.

* Charlie Lexton, Head of Business Affairs and General Counsel at Merlin Network, introduces their attorney Frank Scibilia at Pryor Cashman

It took us several months to put two and two together and realize that it was just a farce with an expected outcome.

John Guerrier De'Bey a.k.a. Sean Thurman was suspected of submission of forged, falsified and altered documents. Merlin B.V. was found to be an indeterminate business entity suspected of being intent on taking the control of the flow of digital sales revenues. Vevo was suspected of improperly counting the video views which likely caused its video-hosting service to shut down and unauthorized use of around 1,000 music videos previously distributed by our company to their platform.

And this is not the end of it.

MYSTERY OF A LETTER ALLEGEDLY WRITTEN BY FRANK P. SCIBILIA:

Shortly after the introduction Vladimir Milicev came into possession of a letter allegedly written and signed by Frank P. Scibilia. The letter is available for review HERE.

Having consulted with other lawyers from New York, we heard that Pryor Cashman LLP was a respectable law firm and that it was highly unlikely that such a letter could have ever been written by one of the partners, Frank Scibilia.

* Did Frank Scibilia at Pryor Cashman write this letter or not? We are still waiting for Mr. Scibilia to contact us back...

True indeed - the email with this letter attached was not sent by Mr. Scibilia to Vladimir Milicev. It was John De'Bey who sent it (over) to Vladimir and we know that De'Bey is suspected of submission of numerous forged documents. On the other hand, Frank Scibilia was put in copy in a number of emails exchanged between Charlie Lexton (Merlin B.V.) and John De'Bey, so we shouldn't exclude the possibilty of his authorship either. At least, Scibilia must have been aware of what was going on (unlike us, who found it out much later), although he never said a word about anything.

Unfortunately, Frank Scibilia will not let us know the answer to that question. Just recently, Vladimir Milicev sent F. Scibilia an inquiry regarding the letter allegedly written by him, but there is no response from Mr. Scibilia yet. Not even an automatic email notification on being unable to send responses for any reason - nothing at all.

Generally speaking, it is no coincidence that lawyers from California or New York were chosen to act on behalf of many companies, mostly because of the innate belief that a CA or NY-based business is considered authoritative over the rest of the United States and, hopefully, the rest of the world. Our experience tells us that thinking about the consequences of what they say or do is not one of their virtues (for more details, check this example, or this one too).

If "Pryor Cashman LLP" is one of the most respectable (and respectful) New York law firms whose partners remain speechless when supposed to respond to inquiries they find inconvenient or unsuitable, what do we say about other New York law firms and attorneys? Is it something that the State of New York and the United States in general should be proud of?

* This content is in compliance with our Terms Of Use. We are a socially responsible company whose goal is to warn people of the inconvenience and damage that irresponsible companies and individuals can cause.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES:

.:: Introduction: Scammers in the music industry

.:: Why did VEVO actually shut down its on-demand video streaming website and apps?

.:: Should we expect the Government to address issues related to one's fraudulent activity?

.:: Meet the guys from New York who fabricate invoices, court decisions, official corporate, federal, state and court documents

.:: Meet the New York based company suspected of unauthorized use of around 1,000 music videos on Vevo

.:: Copyright infringement committed by Vevo LLC, MarvMent LLC and John De'Bey a.k.a. Sean Thurman

.:: Merlin Network - Are they intent on taking the control of the flow of revenues shared between the music platforms, indie artists and labels?

.:: Meet the guys from New York suspected of misinforming their clients on the actual status of resellers indirectly distributing videos to Vevo, submission of incorrect information and making promises about guaranteed numbers of views during the period 2014-2015

.:: How a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group used to treat its clients

.:: The mystery of a letter allegedly written by a New York law firm partner in October 2015

.:: Complaint against TD Bank related to approving a wire transfer fraud