JENSEN LA VENDE &

KE­JAN HAYNES

Tick­et­ing plat­form Is­land eT­ick­ets is threat­en­ing le­gal ac­tion against Ja­cho En­ter­tain­ment af­ter the col­lapse of the One Caribbean Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, de­mand­ing the re­turn of US$80,000 ad­vanced to head­line act Adid­ja “Vy­bz Kar­tel” Palmer.

But Ja­cho En­ter­tain­ment is push­ing back, ac­cus­ing Is­land eT­ick­ets of breach­ing its own re­fund pol­i­cy and warn­ing the com­pa­ny to halt all re­pay­ments un­til an au­dit is com­plet­ed.

“It was patent­ly ob­vi­ous, it was high­ly like­ly that many pa­trons would not at­tend the event and there would be an im­mense num­ber of charge­back and re­fund re­quests,” Is­land eT­ick­ets wrote in a let­ter sent to Ja­cho on Thurs­day.

The show, orig­i­nal­ly set for Car­ni­val Fri­day, was post­poned to May 31.

Just days be­fore the re­vised date, Is­land eT­ick­ets said it trans­ferred US$100,000 to cov­er Kar­tel’s ap­pear­ance—US$80,000 from tick­et rev­enue and US$20,000 from pri­vate sources, re­port­ed­ly arranged by the pro­mot­er.

When Kar­tel with­drew, cit­ing breach of con­tract, oth­er for­eign per­form­ers, in­clud­ing Siz­zla Kalon­ji and Moliy, al­so pulled out. Chron­ic Law was the on­ly for­eign act to per­form. Lo­cal acts in­clud­ed La­dy La­va, KMC, Iw­er George, Joshua Re­grel­lo, and Ravi B.

Is­land eT­ick­ets claimed it urged Ja­cho to can­cel the show but it went ahead. The re­sult: low turnout, over 200 re­fund de­mands, and 68 charge­backs.

The com­pa­ny is now hold­ing on to US$119,000 and TT$302,000 in tick­et pro­ceeds and plans to re­im­burse all buy­ers. It is al­so de­mand­ing that Ja­cho re­pay the US$80,000 sent to Kar­tel.

“My client here­by for­mal­ly de­mands the re­turn of the sum to fa­cil­i­tate the pay­ment of charge­backs and to ful­ly fund com­plete re­funds to all pa­trons,” the lawyer wrote.

If Ja­cho fails to com­ply, Is­land eT­ick­ets warned it would “be con­strained to take fur­ther ac­tion, in­clud­ing but not lim­it­ed to le­gal pro­ceed­ings,” and said the pro­mot­er could be held li­able for dam­ages, le­gal costs and in­ter­est.

Still, the plat­form said it prefers a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion. “We hope the mat­ter can be re­solved am­i­ca­bly and ex­pe­di­tious­ly.”

But Ja­cho is fight­ing back. On Thurs­day night pro­mot­er Odane An­der­son is­sued a cease-and-de­sist let­ter, in­struct­ing Is­land eT­ick­ets to stop all re­fund ac­tiv­i­ty.

“This let­ter serves as a for­mal Cease and De­sist No­tice from the or­gan­is­ers of the One Caribbean Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, in­struct­ing you to im­me­di­ate­ly halt all re­fund pro­cess­ing re­lat­ed to our event, un­til a full in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion is con­clud­ed.”

An­der­son ar­gued the re­funds were not jus­ti­fied and did not align with Is­land eT­ick­ets’ own re­fund pol­i­cy.

“Per your pub­lished Re­fund and Ex­change Pol­i­cy, if your event is can­celled, we will re­fund the amount you paid for your tick­ets (mi­nus or­der pro­cess­ing, ser­vice and de­liv­ery fees). Venue and tal­ent are sub­ject to change with­out no­tice and are not grounds for a re­fund. Any­thing promised by the pro­mot­er that is un­ful­filled is not guar­an­teed by the sell­er and is not grounds for a re­fund.”

An­der­son said the show was not can­celled.

“Any and all re­fund ac­tiv­i­ty is in di­rect con­flict with your stat­ed pol­i­cy.”

The pro­mot­er has de­mand­ed a re­port de­tail­ing re­funds al­ready processed, in­clud­ing names, amounts and rea­sons.

“Fail­ure to com­ply with this di­rec­tive may re­sult in le­gal ac­tion and claims for dam­ages aris­ing from any unau­tho­rised or un­jus­ti­fied re­fund dis­burse­ments.”

Is­land eT­ick­ets has not backed down.

Po­lice have con­firmed a fi­nan­cial probe in­to the ini­tial US$950,000 paid to Kar­tel be­fore he pulled out of the con­cert. Ja­cho said the pay­ment was above board.

On Thurs­day, An­der­son said he feared for his life as he was now un­able to meet fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions.