Guy Sebastian’s income from Madness tour revealed in trial of ex-manager Titus Day
Guy Sebastian’s private messages to a superfan, his wife’s pay rate and ex-manger’s dispute with another ex-reality show star have been revealed.
Police & Courts
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Guy Sebastian’s celebrity stylist wife has given evidence for the first time after a jury was told the singer raked in a whopping $2.9 million for a six-show tour and contacted a superfan to help with the legal fight against his former manager.
The revelation is the latest to emerge during the trial of the former manager Titus Day, who is alleged to have fraudulently embezzled about $900,000 allegedly owed to the singer.
Mr Day denies any wrongdoing and claims Mr Sebastian owes him money.
As the trial resumed on Thursday, Damien Luscombe returned to the witness box to give evidence.
He was the boss at an accounting firm called White Sky, which Mr Sebastian enlisted to help manage his finances in 2015.
During cross-examination from Mr Day’s barrister, Dominic Toomey SC, Mr Luscombe agreed his company was sent a document showing a financial breakdown of the Madness tour.
The court was told the document prepared by the tour manager Dan Redgrave showed income from the tour totalled $2.9m.
Once tour costs – including $712,000 for venue charges and $1.5m for on-road costs – were deducted, the court was told the document showed Mr Sebastian profited to the tune of almost $236,000.
Mr Day’s company, 6 Degrees, was entitled to a 20 per cent commission cut of the profit, which the court was told equated to about $47,000.
“I would say from looking at this (document) that it does not include merchandise,” Mr Luscombe said when asked if the figures included income from the sale of merchandise.
When Mr Toomey said “there would be further commissionable income from merchandise, assuming the merchandise produced a profit”, Mr Luscombe agreed and said “that’s correct”.
Next called to give evidence was one of Mr Sebastian’s superfans, Christian Bugno, who appeared via videolink from Las Vegas.
Mr Bugno told the court that after Mr Sebastian performed at his 21st birthday more than a decade ago, he paid the former Australian Idol winner to perform at his wedding in Venice in 2016.
“My communication with Mr Sebastian was, many years ago, when I first moved to Vegas,” Mr Bugno told the court.
“I said if I can support at any time, I’d be happy to support with providing evidence.”
When quizzed further about his relationship with Mr Sebastian, Mr Bugno conceded he provided “untrue” information to the court and revealed Mr Sebastian sent text messages begging him to help with the trial as recently as May 24.
“Brother sorry but this is so urgent cause I’m in court, is there any way you could find out who paid for Titus [sic] flight to Venice,” Mr Sebastian texted about an hour after he finished giving evidence at court.
After Mr Bugno was forced to show the court the text messages, he said he responded and said his father paid for business class flights for Mr Sebastian and Mr Day to attend the wedding.
Mr Sebastian wrote back “thanks brother that is amazing timing … I’ll call you once this is done and I’m finished giving evidence … sorry to trouble you with this”.
The court was told the pair had further discussions about an email exchange Mr Bugno had with Vogue Entertainment Agency, who he initially asked to help arrange for Mr Sebastian to perform at the wedding.
After Mr Sebastian asked if Vogue was used to book the wedding gig, Mr Bugno sent a text message back saying “no we did it directly with Titus and 6 Degrees”.
Mr Sebastian said “I will elaborate once this is all over … thanks for chasing this”.
“I’m so embarrassed I’m having to include you in this.”
Mr Bugno responded by saying “Bro don’t be embarrassed, here to help and provide evidence and information that is needed”.
The court was later told the dispute with Mr Sebastian was not the only one involving Mr Day had and one of his former clients.
Lachlan Evans, the Hall Chadwick corporate insolvency manager who was involved in overseeing the liquidation of Mr Day’s company 6 Degrees, said former X Factor reality TV show contestant Matt Gresham was also in a dispute with Mr Day.
Mr Evans said Mr Day claimed Mr Gresham owed him $16,000.
“There are no invoices but money was lent to Matt by the company … he refused to pay it back,” Mr Day wrote in an email to Mr Evans.
“Unfortunately he is a liar and doesn’t want to pay it back but the money is owed.”
The court was told Mr Gresham said Mr Day’s claim was “not true”.
The trial will continue on Friday with Mr Sebastian’s wife Jules set to give more evidence.
She entered the witness box briefly on Thursday to explain she was offered $15,000 to be an ambassador for an early childhood education app called PlayKids.
Ms Sebastian told the court $6403 hit her bank account from Mr Day.
Originally published as Guy Sebastian’s income from Madness tour revealed in trial of ex-manager Titus Day
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