Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, who spent much of his career calling himself the musical Pied Piper (a fictional character that persuaded children to run away with him with his music), has been hit with more devastating financial news.
After being convicted of racketeering and the Man Act in Brooklyn in 2021, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly is now determining the songwriter and producer will have to pay $300,668.18 in restitution to the government’s principal witness, a woman who testified as Jane.
This money, well over a quarter million dollars, will go to cover the projected costs of therapy and treatment for herpes she received after having sexual relations with him.
He never told her she had herpes, even though she started dating him when she was 17-year-old and in high school and he was almost 50.
Jane was granted permission from her parents to finish up her senior year in high school with the Grammy award singer and lived with him for about five years.
While there, she was physically abused, including being punched and dragged by her hair.
During the trial, it was discovered Kelly once beat her with an Uptown Sneaker and whipped her with a cord, leaving a bruise and bloodied skin.
He also made her have sex with men she didn’t know as a punishment.
R. Kelly will also have to pay another woman named Stephanie $8,400 in mental health costs. He started having sex with her when she was 17, and he was 32.
The question is … where will he get this money from?
R. Kelly has a net worth of -$2 million and owes in total $450,000 in restitution to a few people exploited by him. Prosecutors said he is not as broke as he says he is. Right before his 2021 trial, he sold parts of his publishing for $5 million.
The Insider reports that the prosecution revealed, “Sony has withheld paying Kelly royalties from his master recordings as the company deals with judgments related to civil legal proceedings against him. They’re currently holding on to between $3.5 and $4.5 million worth of royalties for Kelly but owe $7 million in judgments.”
“The composition and lyrics rights, however, were sold for $5 million in August,” the article further stated. He also still gets paid through music.
“Through his R&B music, [R. Kelly] received revenue from two separate forms of intellectual property rights. One is from his master recordings, which is owned by Sony,” the article explained. “The other is the rights to his composition and lyrics.”
His lawyers deny all of this is true.
Even if it is, he does not have access to it in jail. Even his commissary account has been taken by the government. He had $28,000, and now they left him with $500,
I guess now he sees there is something wrong with “a little bump and grind.”