Back in October 2010, Ryan Leslie lost his laptop that contained his unreleased music while overseas. Immediately after, he offered $1 million dollars as a reward to anyone who returned it.
A man by the name of Armin Augstein found Ryan’s belongings and returned it to him but never received his reward as promised. Leslie refused to pay after realizing that the unreleased music he thought was on the laptop was actually not there. Armin went on to sue the producer for breaching the million dollar reward and won. A jury held Ryan Leslie accountable and ordered him to pay Augstein $1.18 million dollars in damages but he quickly after, filed for bankruptcy and Augstein has been fighting to get his money ever since.
Fast forward, a couple of weeks ago the singer/producer gave up his rights to his entire music catalog in order to settle the case. Both parties came to the agreement that Augstein will receive all interests in Leslie’s musical rights and future royalty payments. Augstein will be entitled to receive up to $538,000 from the royalties and if after six years he has not earned up to $300,000, he will continue to have access to those rights until he is paid in full. Afterwards Ryan will then be granted back his rights to his catalog.
The producer has worked with the likes of Britney Spears, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Ne-yo, The Game, New Edition, Danity Kane, and Fabolous and so much more.
