A bean counter accused by Rihanna of providing bad accounting advice that nearly left her broke is firing back against the pop star’s lawsuit, saying in court papers that the singer only has herself to blame for her 2010 “Last Girl On Earth” tour being a big-money bust.
“The tour was very expensive in that acts, scenes and equipment were purchased and used to make it an impact tour,” lawyers for accountant Peter Gounis said in the Manhattan federal court filing Wednesday.
“The tour did not make as much money as projected …Gounis, however, .. did not leave the tour to go act in a movie, Fenty did.”
The filing does not say which film Rihanna — whose real name is Robyn Fenty — left to shoot.
“Peter Gounis … had no role or responsibility for how much money was made and/or spent,” the filing states.
“The tour was what she wanted, just as the exorbitant amount of expensive clothing and other purchases she squandered her money on were.”
Gounis also claims Rihanna is off the mark in blaming him for “not preventing” her from “purchasing an extraordinary amount of shoes, clothing, jewelry and junkets.”
“At the end of her two-year spending spree she had rooms of shoes, clothing and jewelry and fond, if not hazy, memories of extravagant parties, but little cash,” the court document says.
“Was it really necessary to tell her that if you spend money for things you will end up with the things, and not the money?”
Rihanna claims she got bad advice from her accountants and that Gounis, co-worker Michael Mitnick and the firm Berdon LLP gave her the green light to buy a $6.9 million Beverly Hills mansion even though she was bleeding cash in 2009 and had lost $9 million.
Her 2012 suit claims that it was Berdon’s negligence that prompted a costly IRS audit of her returns and that she lost millions during the tour because the firm failed to reconcile costs versus revenues while still paying itself millions in fees.
Berdon, Gounis and Mitnick vehemently deny the allegations of negligence, breach of contract and other charges in the suit, and have filed a motion asking Judge Kevin Castel to dismiss a case set to go to trial May 12.
Messages left with Rihanna’s lawyers were not returned.