Benzino Fired From Source
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:06 pm
The New York Post reported co-founders Dave Mays and Ray "Benzino" Scott have been dismissed from The Source magazine. Escorted by two body guards the new Chief Executive Jeremy Miller told the entire staff there would be immediate changes. "As far as I am concerned, all of the previous beefs are dead," says Miller of Benzino?s rifts with Eminem, G-Unit and rival magazine XXL. The Source Entertainment Inc. board of directors voted four to two to fire Mays and Scott because their presence "hurts not only the employees of The Source, but all of its investors, vendors, subscribers and readers."
The decision follows a New Jersey judges? lift of a temporary restraining order Mays and Scott obtained when the board initially made their feelings known. The two are looking to file another suit on the bases that the board took over illegally. Black Enterprise obtained minority ownership and seats on the board of directors of The Source Entertainment Inc. in the late nineties after investing $12 million into the magazine. From it?s inception in 1997 $91 million private investment fund The Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Corporate Growth Partners L.P. aimed to finance minority owned, managed, or targeted businesses. At some point The Source lacked money and Black Enterprise CEO Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. linked the magazine with R.I.-based lender Textron Financial Corp., resulting in an $18 million loan.
Textron filed suit against The Source last October, claiming it defaulted on the loan, and wanted the New York State Supreme Court to assign a receiver to oversee the company. The judge rejected the suit on grounds that Textron had no more rights than other lenders. There?s still a sexual harrassment suit pending against The Source, filed by two former female workers. Former Editor-in-Chief Dasun Allah awaits the outcome of his vandalism charges for spray painting in a Harlem Jehovah witness hall.