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Cousins! Following the ongoing legal battle between previous longtime collaborators Kanye West and Adidas a judge has recently ruled in denying the athletic brand’s request to freeze a large portion of his Yeezy fund!
According to court records obtained by Billboard Judge Caproni denied the brand’s emergency motion on Tuesday, May 30th during a hearing in Manhattan, New York. This comes months after Adidas legal team expressed their claimed concerns of how Kanye would use the money if it weren’t frozen; arguing that they would ultimately suffer.
“Yeezy is likely to comingle the funds with an unknown balance of funds in its possession at other financial institutions, such that it would be more difficult if not impracticable to audit those accounts and determine which monies are owned by Adidas,” says lawyers for Adidas in a written statement. “In addition, Ye faces a clear risk of insolvency, giving rise to a risk of irreparable harm.”
Judge Caproni had previously froze Kanye’s Yeezy funds back in November of 2022 after Adidas decided to cut ties with the Chicago native upon circulation of his antisemitic statements. The original ruling weighed solely in favor of Adidas and didn’t allow Kanye nor his legal team to counter.
However reports read that last week the father of four challenged the order to freeze the $75 million upon ground that Adidas took away his fair chance to reply. “It is hereby ordered that … Adidas’s motion for a TRO is denied,” Judge Caproni wrote in her issued order.
It has been stated that Tuesday’s ruling pertains only to the emergency motion to re-freeze the funds and that Adidas can still request that the court re-freeze the Grammy award winning rapper’s funds through a different order.
As we previously reported Adidas was one of many companies that cut ties with Kanye following a series of controversial comments directed at the Jewish community. They were one of the last brands to pull the plug on their longtime partnership of over ten years.
The overall impact of Kanye’s 2022 statements play out well for him and ultimately led to the former billionaire losing a large chunk of his fortune. Ye is reportedly now worth a total of $500 million dollars.