Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster has filed a lawsuit against a Kanye West collaborator for allegedly forging West’s signature on contracts and faking invoices from as part of a multi-million-dollar scam.
In a suit filed at LA County Superior Court, the company claimed the sometimes West-collaborator, Malik Yusef, tricked it into working together on a series of video projects and promotion of sunglass collections by artists including West, Pharrell Williams and Jaden Smith.
Gentle Monster paid an estimated $2.5m to Yusef in late 2018 to work on a series of videos with the artists. When the first video was released in February 2019, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian-West claimed the rapper played no part in video, despite being listed in the credits.
Lawyers for Gentle Monster have requested a jury trial.
