Australian Promoter Denies “Ripping Off” Fleetwood Mac

Embattled Australian concert promoter Andrew McManus has denied reports that he actively withheld cash made from ticket sales from bands like Fleetwood Mac, whose tours his company promoted.

Fairfax Media reports that during a 2012 investigation by police into the source of $702,000 cash found in a suitcase in a Sydney hotel room, McManus admitted, during a police interview which was tendered in court, that he withheld from bands cash made from ticket sales, with the publication naming Fleetwood Mac.

“I sold over $700,000 in cash tickets, because people wanted the best tickets, they come to the office, they ring up or email. I’m not sharing it with the band…the cash stays in Andrew McManus’s pocket,” McManus, now the director of One World Entertainment, reportedly told police.

Taking to his One World Entertainment Facebook page today, in a disjointed post which appears to have been copied and pasted from elsewhere, McManus published the email he allegedly sent to Fairfax journalist Kate McClymont, vehemently denying claims that he “ripped” off bands.

McManus said that the bands mentioned in reports were on “flat” deals “meaning they were on a fee / guarantee for there [sic] tour”. “Each and every one were paid in full so to have you continually say I kept money from Fleetwood Mac is laughable considering they received every cent due to them,” he writes.

“What you did, irrespective of my mind set at the time I met with NSW Police was to take a transcript and piece meal a story that is fundamentally colorised to make me look like some form of petty criminal,” he said. Read the entire post below.

Last year McManus lost the planned 2013 Fleetwood Mac tour to rival promoter Live Nation as well as a stadium deposit of $50,000 after failing to secure the Fleetwood Mac gig for the venue. The tour was eventually cancelled, with John McVie, one of the original members of Fleetwood Mac having to undergo treatment for cancer during that period of time.

Reportedly, during his police interview McManus claimed the money found in the suitcase was his and that he was using it to pay back a business associate who had allegedly fronted the deposit for a ZZ Top tour. He also said he wanted the cash back to fund another tour for Lenny Kravitz.

Fairfax reports that McManus has since claimed he was under the influence of morphine and alcohol at the time of his 2012 interview with police and in his own Facebook post McManus says the admissions were “made under duress”.

A Supreme Court judge has refused to return the money found in the suitcase to anyone, as the court is yet to determine who is “lawfully entitled” to it.

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