John Shearer/Getty ImagesR. Kelly believed he could win, and he did.
The legally blessed R&B star has been awarded nearly $3.4 million in damages from concert promoter Leonard Rowe after a court-approved arbitrator determined that Rowe had been selling investment shares in Kelly's Double Up tour without the singer's permission.
Georgia-based Rowe Entertainment was also ordered to foot the bill for the lawsuit Kelly filed in February, in which he charged that Rowe had failed to pay him several million dollars in tour proceeds, per court documents filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"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 released by his rep, Allan Mayer.
"Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished."
This hasn't been the greatest fiscal quarter for Rowe. A judge also ordered him in early September to pay Kelly's onetime fellow road warrior Ne-Yo, who was unceremoniously dumped from the Double Up tour last November after only two performances, $700,320 in damages.
Rowe had claimed Ne-Yo failed to complete the proper paperwork that would have truly cemented the deal, while the "So Sick" singer contended he was tossed after getting a better reaction from fans and critics than Kelly received.
The tour, which also featured Keyshia Cole and J. Holiday, continued, even after Kelly's tour bus was stopped for speeding on Dec. 19, causing the Grammy winner to miss a Chicago court date in connection with his then-pending child pornography case.
Despite being chided for his "brazenness," Kelly was allowed to keep performing. In June, he was found not guilty of making a sex tape with an underage girl, felony charges that were years in the making.