The Songwriters Guild of America, headquarted in Nashville, Tenn., suffered losses of $1.2 million dollars through embezzlement by a former royalty manager.
Marsha Aiken, 54, of Brooklyn, N.Y., confessed that, along with her and her daughter and nephew, they stole $1.2 million dollars from the organization between 2001 and 2005.
They got away with it through a fund that holds approximately 2 percent of royalties from writers that have no known addresses at the time. They created a fictitious writer and allocated the funds to that name. In this case it was Anthony Ray.
Nicole Williams, Aiken's daughter received $802,721 in royalty checks, and Anthony Ray, her nephew, $444,791. They all shared the money of the checks together.
Aiken pleaded guilty and could get up to five years in prison at sentencing on December 18.
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