A new court filing claims Damon Dash’s recent bankruptcy petition is a “bad faith” effort to slow down collection of a nearly $5 million debt, comparing the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder to notorious Infowars host Alex Jones.
Dash declared bankruptcy in Florida on Sept. 4, saying he owes more than $25 million and has just over $4,000 to his name. The record executive filed a so-called Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, in which an individual’s assets are sold off to pay creditors, and remaining debts can be erased.
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The bulk of Dash’s debt consists of roughly $19 million in unpaid taxes. But he is also plagued by creditors Joshua Webber and production company Muddy Water Pictures, who once worked with Dash and who now hold more than $4.8 million worth of court judgments against him for copyright infringement and defamation.
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Webber and Muddy Waters have had a rough time trying to collect money from Dash over the years, and they said in a Sunday (Sept. 14) letter to the New York federal judge overseeing the litigation that bankruptcy is just Dash’s latest ploy to frustrate the repayment process. The filmmakers compare Dash to Jones, who unsuccessfully tried to use bankruptcy to avoid paying his own $1.3 billion defamation judgment to the families of Sandy Hook victims.
“It is well settled law that Dash cannot discharge the above debt in bankruptcy,” wrote Webber and Muddy Waters’ attorney Christopher Brown. “Dash is simply attempting to slow the plaintiffs’ attempts to collect their judgments. Dash stands in the same legal position as Alex Jones.”
This court filing also claims Dash’s bankruptcy petition is “riddled” with falsehoods, noting that the list of assets in the petition omits multiple LLCs that Dash controls, as well as his “most valuable asset:” his life rights.
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“Dash’s ‘life rights’ is an asset due to his connection to Roc-A-Fella Records Inc. and his former partner Jay-Z,” wrote Brown. “In fact, Dash has been developing a script/movie on his life rights and has publicly addressed the issue. It is no secret that Dash is developing ‘The Roc-A-Fella Movie.’ This asset should have been listed in the Petition for potential liquidation.”
In response, Dash’s attorney, Natraj Bhushan, filed his own letter to the court on Monday (Sept. 15) claiming Webber and Muddy Waters’ filing violates the automatic pause on litigation that comes with declaring bankruptcy.
Dash’s bankruptcy counsel, Brian Zinn, similarly says in a Tuesday (Sept. 16) statement to Billboard that if Webber and Muddy “believe their debts are non-dischargeable, or that Mr. Dash’s bankruptcy petition is deficient, the Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Florida has exclusive jurisdiction to determine that.”
“While it may come with a negative societal preconceived notion, bankruptcy is simply a legal tool that many successful people have used to restructure their obligations to make their debts more manageable,” says Zinn. “Through our extensive experience, it is clear that Mr. Dash’s case is no different. Mr. Dash’s bankruptcy filing will stop most lawsuits and other collection activities. It will give him breathing room to organize his finances and rebuild his credit. He may also be able to eliminate some or most of his debts.”
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Webber and Muddy Waters have been in a legal war with Dash since 2019, when they filed suit claiming the record executive was trying to illegally claim ownership of their movie Dear Frank. The filmmakers said that while Dash initially signed on to direct the movie, he spent the bulk of the shoot “inebriated on marijuana, belligerent and aggressive.”
That case went to trial in 2022, and Webber and Muddy Waters won a collective $823,000 in damages from Dash. Webber sued Dash again for defamation in 2024, claiming the Roc-A-Fella co-founder was continuing to claim publicly that Webber actually stole the film from him.
A judge ruled this past February that Dash had forfeited his right to defend against those allegations by blowing past case deadlines and ignoring court orders. Dash was hit with a $4 million default judgment — the price of a different movie contract that Webber allegedly lost due to Dash’s public accusations of theft.
Meanwhile, Dash’s one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella was auctioned off last year to help pay off his tax and child support debts. New York state bought the shares for $1 million and has since resold them.
