A judge ordered Kanye West’s Yeezy brand to pay $300,000 to a creative director who sued the company.
According to the New York Post, Judge Gerald Lebovits issued a default judgment in Katelyn Mooney’s favor after Yeezy failed to respond to her lawsuit on Monday (May 1). Mooney claimed Kanye West’s brand owed her roughly $100,000 for her work on a photoshoot.
Mooney said she was hired to shoot Kanye West for his SHDZ sunglasses line. She was allegedly supposed to be paid $110,000.
The freelance creative director provided the final photos to Yeezy in September, but she only received $15,000. Yeezy allegedly didn’t pay Mooney for two months after the shoot, forcing her to take out loans and rely on credit cards to pay her bills.
Mooney sued Yeezy in December 2022. Kanye West never enlisted a lawyer to respond to the lawsuit.
Judge Lebovits awarded Mooney with $95,000 in actual damages. The judge ordered Yeezy to pay $205,000 in statutory damages.
Mooney’s case was one of several lawsuits filed against Kanye West over the past year. He previously failed to respond to a suit accusing him of sampling Boogie Down Productions without clearance. Ye also sought to settle a dispute with Sunday Service workers suing him for alleged mistreatment.
