Director Malik Bendjellou re: Rodrguez's royalties
Here's what Director, Malik Bendjellou, told The New Yorker regarding Rodriguez's missing royalties. It sounds like the money is currently going to a legitimate British company, although I don't know if Rodriguez is getting any royalties. The past is murkier, and I suspect that Avant is both legally and ethically culpable, whether he pocketed the money or not. At the very least, he is guilty of neglect and fraud if he knew of the (legal and illegal) sales in South Africa. But resolution is expensive and based on tonight's WONDERFUL 60 Minutes interview, Rodriguez is very much at peace with himself and his circumstances, thus unlikely to pursue the matter. What an amazing man!
One of the most interesting things about the below excerpt is the attorney's statement: "“Sure, we can solve this, but it will take three years and we will need some money because these things are difficult.” Why is s/he so sure it's solvable, and that it'll take 3 years?
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Is anybody working on that trail of money that Rodriguez hasn’t seen?
Rodriguez today still sells gold in South Africa—only in the last five years he sold another gold disc, but that money does not go to Clarence Avant. It goes to another company in England, and someone should investigate what happens with that money. I spoke to a South African lawyer who solved the case of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and he said, “Sure, we can solve this, but it will take three years and we will need some money because these things are difficult.”
I didn’t get too deep into what happens with Rodriguez’s record checks today, because the story is not really about money. We had a country during apartheid that was isolated, so we didn’t have any cultural exchange. The South African record labels didn’t search for him because they couldn’t bring him to South Africa anyway, it was a boycott. We had a guy who was living in a house without a telephone, which is not very common, and we had a time before the Internet, the third factor. I mean, there are a few factors that made this story happen and the money is only one of those factors, I think.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2012/08/searching-for-sugar-man-malik-bendjellou.html#ixzz28fTIL3UH