Some messy developments have led to an Australian booking and touring agency allegedly shutting down operations after it was accused that its founder was deceiving artists, staff, and the music industry at large with an alias to avoid being linked to a series of unpaid debts and music festival flops.
A man by the name of Harrison O’Connor aka ‘Harry’ is listed as the founder of Paramount Agency & Touring, a Sydney-based company that sprang up this July, but as The Music reports, O’Connor is believed to in fact be one Dene Broadbelt (aka Dene Mussillon/Musillon/Morgan according to different sources), the same promoter responsible for a Goulbourn radio station festival that left musicians out of pocket and a “scam” Darwin festival called Infinity.
According to an NT News report from April, it’s believed that the Infinity Music Festival – which is currently selling tickets to its October event for up to $95 online – is nothing more than a scam conceived by a 21-year-old event director Dene Bordabelt/Mussillon/Morgan, “after many of his past business associates claimed he had conned them out of thousands of dollars,” leaving a trail of unpaid bills in his wake.
The NT News piece found its way Paramount Agency employee Emma Grace, who recognised Infinity Festival’s ‘Dene’ as her own boss, Harrison ‘Harry’ O’Connor, believing them to be the same individual.
Grace, who had worked for the Sydney agency for just two weeks, tells The Music that she began alerting artists on Paramount’s roster, claiming that ‘Harry’ had accrued massive financial debts through the guise of the Paramount company name by purchasing ads.
The whistleblower says she was “making sure all the artists know and they’re OK” and adds that she has been paid for her work but is now looking for a new job after attempting to confront ‘Harry’ but failing to get in contact with him.
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The Paramount Agency’s website and social media accounts have since been deleted, though a profile picture for ‘Harry’ – showing the back of a producer at work in a studio – is believed to be fraudulent, instead lifted from an article about UK producer Gene Freeman, aka Machine, as Music Feeds points out.
A former Paramount client, 18-year-old producer Imanti, has also called out the agency as a “complete rip-off and waste of time” and further accusing ‘Harry’ to be a fraud; telling The Music “I had my suspicions because he’d never put his face online, or post his personal details anywhere.”
A rep from Sydney’s 301 Studios also says that bills for recording time accrued by Paramount artists had not yet been paid, also believing ‘Harry’ O’Connor to be the same Dene Broadbelt/Mussillon/Musillon/Morgan linked in other news reports.
Police are currently investigating the situation. More news as it surfaces.
