DETROIT - "A complex civil action" pretty well sums up the RICO case EBB-Bran Productions has filed against Kid Rock (Robert Ritchie), Warner Elektra Atlantic, Top Dog Records and others in Wayne County Court. In a claim that recapitulates the problems in the hip-hop business, EBB-Bran claims the defendants used the recording business to fence and launder stolen songs, "in an interstate and multinational criminal scheme to convert stolen intellectual property," by money laundering, racketeering, federal perjury, tampering with a federal witness, retaliating against a witness, threatening an officer of the court and extortion.
Atlantic is accused of helping Ritchie launder money and stolen intellectual property worth more than $1.6 million. EBB-Bran claims it signed an agreement with Ritchie and formed Top Dog Records with him in 1989. Then followed the complex machinations by which it claims it was done out of its property. EBB-Bran is represented by Nabwangu & Nabwangu of Belleville, Mich. It seeks treble damages.
