Talent Manager in Spotlight Over Loans

One of Hollywood’s top talent managers improperly received more than $1.3 million in loans and advances from a company controlled by former New York money manager and convicted swindler Dana Giacchetto, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

But the manager, Rick Yorn, through lawyer David Stern, denied any wrongdoing. Stern called the action typical for trustees in bankruptcy cases who aggressively try to dig up funds wherever they can.

“Fraud is often alleged, rarely proved and not present here,” Stern said.

The allegations against Yorn, a partner in Michael Ovitz’s Artists Management Group, which represents such stars as Leonardo DiCaprio, were made in a filing by Robert L. Geltzer, trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings related to Giacchetto’s Cassandra Group.

Although listed as counts in the filing, the allegations are not criminal and are more analogous to a civil complaint.

The documents allege that Yorn was paid $737,467 by Giacchetto on Sept. 2, 1999, which Giacchetto represented as a sale of stock in Paradise Music & Entertainment, a small Los Angeles entertainment company that formerly had ties to Giacchetto. At the time, the papers allege, both Yorn and Giacchetto knew Cassandra was insolvent.

The papers also allege that Yorn received four loans and advances for $606,521 in 1998 toward the purchase of a home, only $50,000 of which he returned.

Stern said that the $737,467 came from the sale of Paradise stock, and the borrowed funds were from normal margin loans on stock. He said Yorn had no knowledge that Giacchetto’s transactions were improper, and Yorn relied on a business manager for his financial transactions. Yorn was hired by Ovitz in 1998 in a celebrated hiring that shook up the management world.