​United Screen Actors Committee​

FROM:  ACTOR MEMBERS OF SAG-AFTRA

FROM:  ACTOR NON MEMBERS OF SAG-AFTRA

richertwilliam@mac.com

fcbfilms@hotmail.com

 

August 19, 2012

 

TO:

 

KEN HOWARD, CO-PRESIDENT

PATRICIA REARDON, CO-PRESIDENT

 

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD (BELOW)

 

RE:  ACTOR’S REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS AND PROPERTY; NOTICE OF DECLARATION OF GRIEVANCE

 

RE:  ATTORNEY’S HEARING FOR ADDITIONAL FEES LA SUPERIOR COURT ROOM 311 AUG 22 AT 9AM

 

Dear Co-Presidents and SAG-AFTRA Board Members:

 

We the undersigned are among the tens of thousands of American actors whose foreign royalties have been taken unlawfully by the Screen Actor's Guild and divided with the major studios for ten years or more.

 

Contracts and court documents from three related class action lawsuits reveal that millions –actually, billions --of dollars originally sent to U.S. artists from overseas have been divided since 2002 by SAG (now SAG-AFTRA) with major studios and diverted to unknown bank accounts in violation of the law.

 

A statement from the Director’s Guild Chief Financial Officer shows for the first time that some of this money has been accounted for in a “Tri-Guild” audit by the PKF accounting firm, which has provided accountings of the money SAG divided with the studios as far back as 2007.

 

The lawyers in the SAG settlement concealed these accountings, and continue to stonewall in court, exposing the Executive Director and the Board of Directors to charges of fraud against the members, since they are responsible for corporate fiscal actions and audits under the office of the President.

 

We ask that you cease and desist all further violations of our civil and artistic rights and courtroom delay tactics.

 

We are unwilling to succumb to an atmosphere of SAG recrimination against its critics. We despise those few self-serving officials who ignore grievances from members; non-actor officials who keep actors from exposing wrongdoing and illegal studio agreements.   Your joining the AFL-CIO will not provide the umbrella for the coming hailstorm of facts and revelations.

 

We demand that you cease and desist using our own money to prevent our justice in court.

 

We are aware that for each and all of these years since 2002 the Screen Actors Guild used an agreement signed by Robert Pisano with 11 studios outside collective bargaining.

 

We are aware that contract has expired, and that you have been collecting money and dividing it 50/50 with MPAA studios for 8 months without legal authority, outside collective bargaining agreements.

 

Actors would never work eight months without a contract.  It is your duty to tell all of us, at once, why there is no new contract – and who authorized the first one.

 

 It is an outrage that the "Rule One" union has been taking money from actors who belonged to no union, and who had worked for no studio.

 

Taking non-union workers money without acknowledgment, at a time when it costs $3000 to purchase SAG-AFTRA membership, could mean that SAG-AFTRA has already taken the money an actor might need to join the union – thus preventing any distribution of royalties – while depriving the actor of his/her own money.

 

Shame on you -- allowing such wrongdoing to continue under your stewardship of actor's incomes and royalties.

 

Shameful of you for paying lawyers to violate the rights of members using the memberships own money.

 

Shame on you, using non-union actors (and dancers and porn stars) money while promoting SAG jurisdictional grabs against them.

 

You must cease paying for your lawyer Dan Schecter's blustering disingenuous cover up in the courtroom of Judge Wiley Jr., along with your payments to the Plaintiff’s lawyer Neville Johnson, whose settlements have benefited his law firm and the unions and studios more than the actors, writers and directors he represents.

 

There are strict federal rules of law governing use of union funds, use of interest on such funds or the investment of interest; the cycling of funds from bank to bank, the providing of documents to the Franchise TaX Board of the State of California and other states – for this is an interstate, international operation of more than 10 years– and there is a moral and ethical obligation of a fiduciary corporation to act in the best interest of its corporate beneficiaries; the actors and broadcasters and performers represented by SAG-AFTRA.

 

Honesty is the first of the responsibilities of the Presidents and Board of Directors of a Corporation.

 

On May 16 2012, in the courtroom of Judge Wiley Jr., after waiting several years for an accounting for the class, Neville Johnson, attorney for Ken Osmond, hinted that he was ready to announce that SAG had been colleting for non-member actors.

 

Mr. Johnson says he’s preparing new lawsuits against the DGA and SAG to include residuals as well as foreign levies.

 

Lawyers for both sides make millions during these lawsuits, all paid for by the actors, union and non union.

 

Attorneys for both the Plaintiff and Defendants say they represent the interests of the actors.  Apparently They both occupy the same space, in defiance of the laws of physics.

 

It is time the actors’ represent themselves, whether belonging to a union or not.  No union actor we know would willingly take royalties belonging to a non union actor.

 

Only the artists lose out during these lengthy litigations, with settlements that wind up being demands for a simple transparent accounting – one that could be given to us all in an instant by SAG’s own accountants.

 

Thousands of actors owed money for ten years or more need it now. We don’t want to wait another five or seven years or more to get an imitation of justice under Neville Johnson/Paul Kiesel class actions.

 

According to your wesite, SAG has collected $20, 700, 586 dollars since its inception

 

We insist that you, Ken Howard and you, Patricia Reardon, along with the named  individuals on the Boards of Directors of SAG-AFTRA coast to coast, provide a directive to our accountants and auditors to turn over all relevant documents immediately to your attorneys to be given to the court and to the settlement class, whereupon Mr. Schecter’s law firm’s millions in fees will be reduced, and future payments of actor’s millions to Johnson/Kiesel won’t be required.

 

Also we insist that the transparent accounting be placed on the SAG-AFTRA website, along with the “Tri Guild” accounting SAG provided to PKF, so that the 170,000 American actors you represent – and the much larger number you don’t represent – can follow and direct the pathway of their royalties, this time to the correct bank accounts, so we can once again trust our union, and the pursuit of justice in the US of A.

 

The present accounting says SAG collected $20,700,584 in foreign royalties since “inception,” and sent out $9,847,041 to members, charging ‘administrative fees” of $2,021,200 and that SAG’s earned $1,322,812 – but not paid any of it to members, and there is of course no mention of non-members or what money went to them.

There is no mention of  the date of  this “inception” either.

 

WGA now says it paid out $200,000,000 in its “foreign levy program”, the DGA says $42,000,000 – but the largest union, with the actors being the highest paid on almost every set  -- only sends out $9m?  Charges 2m to administer? Since “inception.” – No mention of when that is.

 

You see?  -- Something is radically amiss, not on the side of the actors.

 

The attached contract shows that the guild started collecting in 2002 and it names the splitters, and they have been accounting for the money, and we need to see the “Tri Guild” audit and we need a transparent accounting from the home of SAG-AFTRA.

 

It is never good to take other peoples’ money, and it is never the wrong time to do the right thing.

 

As ever with sweet justice, to paraphrase Yeats about love, “one cannot begin it too soon.”

 

Sincerely,

 

William Richert

Dennis Hayden

Roger Callard

Louis Reeko Meserole