Disgraced R’n’B singer R Kelly has sued the US government following a ruling to seize some of his inmate commissary funds. A federal court ruled that a seizure of his commissary money would be suitable to pay unpaid rent the vocalist still owes.
The musician filed a lawsuit that will see Assistant United States Attorney Kayla Bensing defending the decision of Eastern District of New York judge Ann Donnely. In August, the judge ruled that the singer was required to give the government $28,000.
Donnely decided that since the singer is currently incarcerated, the funds should be seized from his commissary. Since his 2019 imprisonment, Kelly has paid $3.5million to Midwest Commercial Funding and had his label (valued at $1.5million) dissolved.
The court hearing will take place on March 18th. The motion filed reads, “The defendant is appealing his conviction and the government’s seizure of his substantial Bureau of Prisons commissary account to satisfy the financial penalties imposed in the case.”
Kelly has faced a lot of setbacks and multiple lawsuits since his incarceration. In 2020, merely one year after his initial imprisonment, a victim of Kelly’s, Heather Williams, won a $4million judgment after suing Kelly for rape with a minor.
However, Kelly has countersued a number of times, and last November, he sued the Bureau of Prisons for leaking his prison emails and call logs to prominent blogger and YouTuber Tasha K.
In his lawsuit against Tasha K, Kelly’s attorneys will be arguing that she “rallied her massive following to harass the plaintiff with the use of the stolen information and created chaos in the plaintiff’s personal life.”