US Rap Impresario Marion 'Suge' Knight has been ordered to make a $107 million payout in a case brought by a woman who claims she helped found Death Row Records but was pushed out when Knight realized how valuable the ground-breaking music label was.
A judge in Los Angeles ordered Knight to pay Lydia Harris $47 million in economic and non-economic damages and $60 million in punitive damages, issuing the judgment after ruling that
Knight and his legal team had failed to comply with his order to share evidence with Harris and her attorneys.
The label began in 1992, and Knight signed some of Hip Hop's biggest artists, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. Harris, an aspiring producer and singer, and her husband invested money in the label when it was founded, believing that they would own fifty percent of the company. Harris was initially listed on corporate documents as a vice-president, but was later dropped from the corporate charter without her knowledge.
**Dean
Casselman**, an attorney for Harris, said his client faced a new battle in trying to actually collect the money from Death Row and Knight, and said "It's difficult to say what his total assets are, but we believe that between the interest that he owns in Death Row Records assets and real property that he has transferred into names of associates, it's a considerable amount."
No comment has been made by Suge Knight or his legal team.