Ye West is having serious cash flow problems after losing lucrative corporate sponsorships with Adidas and Gap. He owes the IRS tens of millions of dollars, and his clothing line owes the state of California $600,000 in unpaid taxes.
Now a freelance photographer in New York is suing Ye, formerly Kanye West, for allegedly refusing to pay her for a photo shoot.
According to court documents, obtained by AllHipHop.com, Katelyn Mooney sued Ye on Wednesday, Dec. 7, in Manhattan Supreme Court for $110,250.
The lawsuit claims Ye booked Mooney to shoot his new designer sunglasses line called YZY SHDZ.
Ye and Mooney discussed the photo shoot agreement via text messages and “confirmed that Ms. Mooney would be retained for a fee of One Hundred Ten Thousand Dollars ($110,000). Ms. Mooney was to be fully responsible for every aspect of the photo shoot, including but not limited to hiring models, reserving studio space, procuring lighting, catering, pre-production, and post-production.”
According to the court papers, on September 14th, Mooney “delivered the final digital files and hard drive as agreed, completing her responsibilities under the agreement. Yeezy had no issues with Ms. Mooney’s work or the final delivered product.” Two weeks later, Mooney submitted an invoice for $110,000 and her W9 form.
Mooney said Ye only paid her $15,000, and now the mom-of-three is suffering serious financial hardship.
“Ms. Mooney is a freelancer and mother of three: due to Yeezy’s failure to timely pay her, she has had to take out a significant loan and max out her credit cards just to cover her rent and other bills,” her lawyer Andrew Gerber said.
“Yeezy’s failure to timely pay her has forced her to incur significant debt in order to pay her rent and bills and support her three children,” Gerber added.
