(AllHipHop News) Early this year reports began to circulate that producer/label head Jermaine Dupri was facing a lawsuit from SunTrust Bank claiming he owed the institution a $1.9 million balance from a $5 million dollar loan issued in 2009. In response the So So Def founder has filed an “Answer and Counterclaims” suit alleging that the bank breached its contract with him.
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According to the counterclaim, in the original loan agreement SunTrust was supposed to take portions of Dupri’s EMI publishing royalties as loan repayment to cover his Federal and State income taxes. Dupri says the bank never made those payments which caused tax liabilities to be placed on him.
Dupri says he made arrangements with SunTrust executives to modify the specifics of the loan in 2010 that eliminated the provision that required the bank to make the tax payments. He claims that the loan was restructured to a fixed payment arrangement and gave SunTrust authority to determine the payment amount which Dupri feels were not based on realistic projections of his income.
The counterclaim also states that Dupri’s legal and financial representatives were not able to review the new loan documents prior to him signing them as he agreed to the arrangement in “good faith” based off of years of a trusted relationship between the two parties. Dupri says he was never given a copy of the closing papers either.
Dupri also claims that the loan was not in default prior to 2010 when it was modified from a variable loan to a fixed payment loan. He is filing the counterclaim because SunTrust filed an action against him and is attempting to foreclose on his home and seize his assets without trying to resolve the matter.
Durpi has since paid off a $3 million federal tax lien and the $500,000 lien from the state of Georgia.
Atlanta’s Alan S. Clarke, Esq. of the Entertainment Law Group will be representing Dupri in the lawsuit.
