The fight for compensation by two injured seafarers is at the centre of an escalating legal battle between a celebrity US lawyer and music mogul Jay-Z, amid claims of dirty tricks and secret payments.
The seafarers say their former lawyer Tony Buzbee overstated his company’s costs in their compensation claims after they were injured on vessels operating in the US.
They say Buzbee’s law firm took money that was intended to cover the seafarers’ basic living expenses — funded by their employers — and instead converted it into high-interest loans given to their families, according to filed legal claims.
The practices contributed to the two seafarers receiving just a tiny fraction of their court-ordered financial settlements after Buzbee and his Texas-based law firm had taken their cuts, according to court filings.
Buzbee dismissed the claims as “frivolous” and said they were part of a wider campaign against him after he represented women who claimed to have been abused by the rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and one case linked to Jay-Z.
Buzbee represented a woman, in a now-discontinued claim, who claimed to have been attacked as a 13-year-old by the music entrepreneur and Combs in 2000.
He alleges that almost immediately after he brought the claim, investigators on behalf of Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, offered up to $10,000 to almost 100 former clients to sue him, including the seafarers.
He claims the efforts were designed to make him stop pursuing cases linked to Combs. He has taken legal action against lawyers acting for Jay-Z over the alleged campaign.
The seafarer claimants, both from the US state of Louisiana, include shipmaster Adam Guidry, who said he was told by Buzbee’s law firm that his case was worth $1m, according to his claim.
He was injured while working on a cutter suction dredger, the General Eisenhower, for Texas-based Callan Marine.
The law firm later advised that he should settle for $325,000. “He had lost his job as a result of his injury, he was financially destitute, his marriage had failed, and he was struggling with addiction,” said the claim. “Relying on his lawyers, Guidry accepted.”
But he only received $5,000 after all the costs were taken out, according to the lawsuit filed in the state of Louisiana where the seafarers are based.
They are said to have included $90,000 in expert witness fees, more than $15,000 for postage and copying fees and more than $23,500 in interest on loans.
The second seafarer, Matthew Thompson, was a deckhand on a vessel that struck a barge in the Houston ship channel in July 2023 and suffered head, neck and back injuries.
He claims that the law firm took 60% of his payout.
Lawyers for the men say that the Buzbee law firm took advantage of the men’s desperate financial plight and addiction problems.
They say money had been provided by employers to fund living and medical expenses pending a settlement but was funnelled into their lawyers’ accounts.
They then handed the funds back to the men and their families but as loans with high rates of interest for travel and relocation, according to the claim.
The firm “recovered these ‘loans’ from Mr Thompson, which was his money to begin with, plus interest”, said the lawsuit.
It said that Thompson struggled to pay for rent, groceries and utility bills the payments were meant to cover. Buzbee said the claims were “bunk”.
“I intend to make sure the former clients and lawyers who brought these silly cases are punished,” he said.
Tim Porter, the lawyer representing the two seafarers, did not respond to requests for comment.
The seafarers’ legal claims do not mention either of the music stars but say Buzbee “uses his notoriety to lure vulnerable clients” to the firm.
The claims added that his firm had become famous by “making salacious accusations against prominent members of society”.
It added: “Mr Thompson, who has worked as a deckhand much of his adult life, was impressed by Mr Buzbee’s public persona, so he hired him as his lawyer.
“Buzbee brought none of his glitz and bravado to Mr Thompson’s case.”
The lawsuit against Combs and Jay-Z over the alleged incident in 2000 has been dismissed.
In a statement after the case was dropped in February, Jay-Z said the “frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed”.
Jay-Z has since taken legal action against his unidentified accuser for defamation and against Buzbee for malicious prosecution.
Buzbee remains involved in other cases against Combs, who has been held in prison since September accused of racketeering and sex trafficking.(Copyright)
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