I wrote an article yesterday asking why LATATA wasn’t taking a stand against agents who are working without a valid license. I mean not only does LATATA not do anything about it, not even so much as issue a public statement, the president of LATATA (the trade organization of licensed talent agents in California), Mark Spiegler, even allows his talent to work with performers who are with non-licensed agents.
Guess that really speaks volumes about what LATATA thinks, if their own president turns a blind eye to the problem.
East Coast Talent is the agency in question that everyone is talking about right now. They aren’t licensed nor have they been. The license number they were using and that is still listed on their website didn’t even belong to them and the state of California has now gone on record to confirm it.
California Talent Agency License #155440 (used by East Coast Talents) is expired. In addition, and more troubling, is that it is filed with a different company NOT name East Coast Talents, but instead an Elevation Productions, LLC, which has been suspended by the California Secretary of State. The owner of East Coast Talents, “John O’Burn,” has himself not applied for a talent agency license. If you want more information under the Public Records Act you, or any interested parties, can send an email to pra@dir.ca.gov. Please indicate the information that you want from TA License #155440 and we may be able to obtain it for any requesting parties.
If you are a current client, or former client, of East Coast Talents, and have any disputes such as non-payment for employment and jobs performed in California, please file a Petition to Determine Controversy with our office.
What does it mean if an agent doesn’t have a valid license? Well a few things ….
- First it means any and all performer contracts are not valid. So any girl on their roster can leave at any time without consequence.
- Secondly it means no performer has to pay him any fees. He can’t collect fees without a license.
- Last but not least, any fees he collected he must refund since he can’t legally accept money for booking performers. So if you paid him, he owes you that money.
I don’t know about you, but if I were a performer who has been paying him money, I would talk to a lawyer about getting my money back. Think about how much money you’ve paid you have paid him – he owes every single penny of that back because he wasn’t legally allowed to charge you those fees.
Just saying …. might want to consider getting it back.
It’s your money. Why give away money for free that you didn’t have to?
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