ROCKER: PAL RIPPED OFF NAILS
By CARL CAMPANILE for New York Post on May 17, 2005
Famed Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor yesterday testified that he was down to a paltry 0,000 in cash at one point thanks to his scheming ex-manager.
Reznor's civil trial against former manager John Malm opened in Manhattan yesterday with the singer detailing how Malm allegedly stole or mismanaged up to million.
"I wasn't paying attention. I trusted somebody. It's as simple as that," the rocker told The Post.
In court, Reznor said Malm had been with him from the day he started Nothing Records in 1991 and that he was duped into agreeing to let Malm take a 50 percent stake in the label plus 20 percent of the Nails' gross revenues.
"Trent Reznor lost millions of dollars because of this," said his lawyer, Zia Modabber.
But Malm's lawyer, Alan Hirth, insisted that his client was no rip-off artist — and that he never even collected the 20 percent commission.
"The vast majority of the money went back into Reznor's pockets, not Mr. Malm's pockets," Hirth said.
Reznor said it wasn't until 2003 that he learned he had as little as 0,000 left.