Boy George accused of conspiring to defraud Culture Club drummer out of £188,000

Drummer Jon Moss and on stage with Boy George at a Culture Club show

Former Culture Club drummer Jon Moss accused Boy George of “conspiring to defraud” him out of £188,000 at a High Court hearing this week.

Moss filed a High Court writ naming Boy George, real name George O’Dowd, as a defendant alongside Culture Club’s guitarist Roy Hay and bassist Michael Craig in December, 2019.

This week, Moss, a founding member of Culture Club, attended a preliminary three-hour High Court hearing for the case, although the defendants were not present.

The drummer officially left Culture Club in May 2021, but told the High Court that after 37 years of “service” he was actually “expelled” by the group’s manager, Paul Kemsley, in September 2018.

That year, Culture Club completed the Life Tour, from June to December. Moss was present for the beginning of the tour, but did not appear in later shows.

Moss now claims that he is owed an “outstanding balance” of £180,000 under a deal he signed for the tour.

According to The Sun, the next hearing will be held on 3 May 2022.

Boy George told PinkNews: “My former band member Jon Moss has made the most unfounded and hurtful allegations against me in legal proceedings in the UK.

“Needless to say, his allegations that I conspired to defraud him are entirely untrue and will be defended in the High Court in London. Culture Club supported Jon from the beginning in 1981 till his departure in 2018.

“I can only assume that his personal attack on me is designed to damage my reputation or to pressurise me into agreeing some kind of financial settlement. I will stand firm against the bullying allegations made against me and will welcome the opportunity to see Jon Moss give evidence on oath about what he allegedly contributed to the success of Culture Club.”

But Moss’s case will not be Boy George’s first time in court.

In 2005, the singer was arrested for cocaine possession in New York and was also convicted of filing a false burglary report, after which he was required to complete community service for the New York City Department of Sanitation.

In 2009, Boy George spent time in prison, convicted of false imprisonment after he handcuffed male escort Audun Carlsen to a wall in his London home, beat him with a metal chain and threatened him with a sex toy.

At the time, a judge said he had “deprived” his victim of “his liberty and human dignity without warning or proper explanation to him of its purpose, length or purported justification”, and sentenced him to 15 months in prison.

He was released after four months for good behaviour.

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