Tour promoter ordered to pay Kelly $3.4M

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- An impartial arbitrator has awarded U.S. singer R. Kelly $3.4 million in damages from tour promoter Leonard Rowe, court documents filed Monday said.

The Grammy Award-winning recording artist said his lawyers filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court to confirm the arbitration award against Rowe, who was the promoter for Kelly's 35-city "Double Up" tour last fall and winter.

Kelly initiated legal action against the promoter while he was still on tour last February, claiming Rowe defaulted on his obligations and failed to pay him several million dollars in tour proceeds he was owed.

The singer said he decided to complete the tour, in effect, performing for free, because he didn't want to disappoint his fans.

"I agreed to let Leonard Rowe promote my tour because he convinced me he was an underdog who deserved a chance to prove himself," Kelly said in a statement. "Like the saying goes, 'no good deed goes unpunished.'"

Kelly said that in addition to his legal action, Rowe has also been the target of a series of lawsuits filed by investors who accused the promoter of bilking them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling them non-existent shares in the tour.

Arbitrator Richard P. Byrne, a retired California Superior Court judge, awarded Kelly $3,397,410.38 in monetary damages and ordered Rowe to take full responsibility for all the lawsuits, the singer said.