On July 19, 2023, Rolling Stone broke the news that Composer Danny Elfman had previously settled a case involving alleged sexual misconduct for $830,000. The settlement and NDA had been signed back in July of 2018, but the news was coming out in 2023 because the accuser, Nomi Abadi, had filed a lawsuit, claiming Elfman had missed two payments of $42,500 each.
Rolling Stone wrote, "The complaint asserts that the allegedly missing payments were tied not to Abadi’s personal payments, but to cash for an unspecified charitable foundation established with some of the settlement money." They also wrote, "When Abadi and Elfman settled, she stipulated that alongside personal payments, some funds were to be earmarked for establishing a charitable entity to help female composers. By 2020, she’d founded the FCSL; It wasn’t specified at the time that the organization would be focused on assisting survivors of sexual misconduct in the industry."
Rolling Stone did not make it clear where they had learned of the agreement to establish a charity to help female composers. That information was not included in Nomi Abadi's complaint. Some fans of Elfman have speculated that Abadi starting her own organization was not part of the agreed-upon plan, and that perhaps Elfman had stopped paying when he saw that the money was going to an organization that Abadi herself had started and ran.
Fans and curious readers have wondered about the details of the settlement and the formation of the FCSL. We now have documents that shed some light on those questions.
On 9/21/23, Elfman's legal team requested that the arbitration clause in the settlement be honored. This prompted the following response documents from Abadi's team:
11/29/23 Plaintiff's Opposition to Defendant's Motion to Compel Arbitration
11/29/23 Declaration of Jeff Anderson (Abadi's attorney) in Support of Opposition
11/29/23 Declaration of Nomi Abadi in Support of Opposition
From Declaration of Nomi Abadi:
"Paragraph 1(b) of the July 31, 2018, Settlement Agreement includes a term that provides for payment by Defendant Elfman to the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund (Charitable Gift Fund) in four increments of $42,500.00, to be paid on or before the first Monday of each July, ending July 5, 2022. Defendant Elfman paid the first of the four payments to the Charitable Gift Fund on September 17, 2018, in the amount of $42,500.00, and a second payment on July 17, 2020 (even though it was due on July 1, 2019), in the amount of $42,500.00. Defendant has not made the third or fourth payments each for $42,5000.00, which were due on or before July 1, 2019, and July 5, 2021, respectively. The outstanding balance owed per the Settlement Agreement to the Charitable Gift Fund is $85,000.00"
What we learned: Elfman was to pay 4 payments of $42,500 each ($170,000 total) into a Charitable Gift Fund. Two payments were made, on 9/17/18 and 7/17/20. Abadi alleges that the payments due by 7/1/19 and 7/5/21 have not been made. Abadi seems to be saying it was the 3rd and 4th payments that were missed, but if we go by the due dates, it could actually be the 2nd and 4th that she claims are missing.
From the Declaration of Nomi Abadi:
"Paragraph 1(b) of the July 31, 2018, Settlement Agreement provides for the payments by Defendant Elfman to the Charitable Gift Fund, which was set up with the assistance of Defendant Elfman. Per the terms of the Settlement Agreement and federal law, I am required to donate the Charitable Gift Fund payments to a nonprofit organization meeting the definition of a pubic charity under Internal Revenue Code sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi)."
What we learned: The agreement was that Elfman was to deposit the 4 payments of $42,500 each into a specific fund (the Charitable Gift Fund), and then Abadi was required to donate that money ($170k total) to a qualified public charity.
From the Declaration of Nomi Abadi:
"In 2020, I founded the Female Composer Safety League (FCSL) and the organization obtained nonprofit status in 2022 and remains in good standing. FCSL is a nonprofit organization that meets the requirements of the Settlement Agreement and is the beneficiary of the Charitable Gift Fund."
The FCSL website says, "The Female Composer Safety League (FCSL) was conceived in 2018 by its founder Nomi Abadi and was launched shortly after," and states that the first meeting was held in 2020. The FCSL's Initial Registration Form with the State of California was received Aug 16, 2021 and the bylaws were received Oct 26, 2021. The IRS granted 501(c)(3) status to the FCSL March 24, 2022.
What we learned: After the settlement agreement had been signed, including the agreement to set aside $170k that Abadi would donate to a charity; and after at least one - possibly two - payments of $42,500 had been deposited into the Charitable Gift Fund; Abadi founded her own charity organization and worked toward obtaining nonprofit status so that it could be the beneficiary of this money.
From the Declaration of Nomi Abadi:
"Consistent with the FCSL’s 501(c)(3) status and federal law, I have donated to FCSL the payments made to the Charitable Gift Fund so far and I will do the same for the remainder of the payments. I do not personally benefit from the payments Defendant Elfman makes to the Charitable Gift Fund."
What we learned: Abadi claims on 11/29/23 that she has donated the money in the Charitable Gift Fund to the Female Composer Safety League, as required. Based on her claims that Elfman has made two payments of $42,500 each, that would be a total of $85k by 7/17/20. She must not have done it right away, as the FCSL's 990 tax form for 2022 reports only $36,532 in "contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts received". Their 2021 form shows $0. We look forward to seeing the rest of the $85k on their 2023 form, due this May.
Nowhere in these official court documents do we see the claim from the Rolling Stone article that the agreement was for Abadi to use this money to establish a charitable organization to help female composers. Perhaps they were mistaken or mislead.
The agreement seems to be that Abadi would donate the money to a qualifying charity. And it seems that she chose to start her own charity and obtain 501(c)(3) status, so that it could be the beneficiary of the Charitable Gift Fund.
Abadi's claim that she, "does not personally benefit from the payments Defendant Elfman makes to the Charitable Gift Fund," is disingenuous. While the 990s claim that the FCSL has no paid employees, including Abadi, funding the FCSL with the Settlement money brings significant social, career and financial benefit to its founder and president.
As for the question of whether this was the reason Elfman stopped making payments, Abadi's attorney states in his Declaration:
"Four months ago, on or about approximately July 24,2023, I spoke to counsel for Defendant Elfman, Camille Vasquez. Defense Counsel stated that she understood the payments at issue in this lawsuit had in fact been made."
And: "I have not been advised that the amounts sought in this lawsuit are in dispute or inconsistent with the Settlement Agreement between the Parties."
So it looks like Elfman's team is claiming the payments were made, and they have not given any indication that he believed he was not obligated to pay them.
More questions remain. One that stands out to us is: What happened to the remaining $660k of the settlement? We're currently looking into that question, so don't forget to join our mailing list for updates!
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Edits 1/14/24:
Just wanted to add a few quotes from Nomi's podcast appearances: From the Roar with KK podcast, released 3/10/20: "These settlements were- became an option because of republican white men made these exist. CEOs do not get taxed, victims do get taxed. Settlements are usually paid slowly over an amount of time. The victim usually ends up with very little, but they're also very protective to the victim. Like there's so many misconceptions about like, this greed, and it's like, no no no no, it's like, NDA can sometimes be a wonderful thing for victims."
Also, from the same podcast episode: "I am starting it (FCSL) in the sense that I have, uh, achieved a good amount of funding for it, which is going to go straight into helping victims."
And, from the Behind the Chameleon podcast, posted January 25, 2022: "That was like okay, well I guess if I need to do this, it's probably going to be done by me. Which is really scary but um, but I did raise a good amount of money just to at least start the cause."
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