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Top SGAE diverts collectively collected money to private accounts!
Posted by Kelvin on Jul 08, 2011 at 12:34
We'd like to draw your attention to a recent scandal in Spain, concerning the country’s biggest collecting society SGAE. It’s President, Teddy Bautista was arrested last week and taken away in handcuffs and under armed guard. The CFO and Director General of SGAE were also taken into custody. In total, 9 people have been arrested. They are accused of embezzlement, fraud and misappropriation of funds – funds which should have been used to remunerate and support artists but instead have apparently been diverted to personal Swiss bank accounts. One of the allegations is that SGAE operatives set up companies and used revenue destined for artists to generate profit for themselves and their families, and that money bound for artists living abroad was diverted to Switzerland. The bank accounts of SGAE, which by law is supposed to act as a strictly non-profit organization, have been frozen (read more here).
This is not the first time European collecting societies have been involved in embezzlement or misappropriation of artists’ revenue. This latest episode is however of an unprecedented scale and underlines the urgent need to introduce EU-wide legislation that will force collecting societies to operate under strict transparency and accountability rules. Only then can we reduce the risk of something like this happening again. Younison’s Call for Action has been signed by almost 5,000 authors who demand stringent and harmonized transparency and accountability standards so this massive stream of "black box money" will reach the rightful artist instead of being delayed for years, or even worse, embezzled by those whose job is supposed to be supporting artists and culture, not filling their own pockets.
We artists are relying on you, the European policymaker, to ensure that the upcoming draft framework directive on collective rights management protects artists and their earnings from such fraudulent activity.
You can keep updated on the story via our Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/#!/younison, @younison
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