R. Kelly Is Not As Broke As He Claims, Prosecutors Say

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The R&B singer R. Kelly is not as broke as he says he is, according to federal prosecutors in New York.

In fact, they say, he is making thousands of dollars and funneling the cash into a friend's bank account.

As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported Wednesday, Kelly's attorneys have been using Kelly's lack of financial resources as a reason for why he should be released from federal custody.

They've also used it as an argument for why he's consistently missed his child support payments.

Kelly's lawyers have been making such arguments for months.

"If you can't go out on tour, if they're not streaming your music anymore, obviously, you're going to have financial problems," attorney Steve Greenberg said on March 13.
"When money comes, in he's going to take care of his kids, and we've had enough of the bashing of Robert Kelly as being a bad dad," attorney Lisa Damico said the same day.

Earlier this year, Kelly was jailed for failing to pay $161,000 in back child support, citing his lackluster bank account balance.

But on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the notion that he's broke is "misleading."

Prosecutors cited a government investigation which found that he continues to receive "hundreds of thousands of dollars in connection with royalties he is owed for his music" and that those funds are being "re-directed" to the bank account of a childhood friend.

Prosecutors said Kelly has easy access to that cash if he ever needed it – for example, if he wanted to flee the country.

On Wednesday, a U.S. District judge in Brooklyn denied Kelly's motion for release. The judge said that the proposed home detention would not be sufficient to deter obstruction or witness intimidation.

The judge also set a federal trial date for May 18, 2020. That is three weeks after his April 2020 trial in Chicago.

Prosecutors also said the last time Kelly was out on bond in Cook County, he tried to leave the county. The prosecutors said Kelly tried to go to Dubai with his two girlfriends, who both submitted passport applications to travel with him.