Bankruptcy by 'Source' founder puts auction for magazine’s assets on hold

By Keith Kelly
N.Y. Post
(May 5, 2006) David Mays, the ousted founder of The Source, threw another legal wrench into the works surrounding the troubled former hip-hop bible. The auction of the firm's stock and assets to a new owner is now on hold for a second time after Mays declared personal bankruptcy.

Said one former Source executive, "It's amazing, once again, David Mays has managed to prevent creditors from getting what is rightfully theirs."

The three potential suitors for The Source include Marc Ecko, the fashion designer who also owns Complex magazine, Earl "Butch" Graves, Jr., and his investment fund Black Enterprise Greenwich Street Growth Partners, and a surprise bidder, Partnership Equity and Adam Blumenthal.

Blumenthal is an ex-deputy comptroller of New York City and earlier was an executive at American Capital Strategies.

The 82 percent stake in The Source once owned by Mays is now technically in the hands of Textron Financial Corp., which received the stock when The Source defaulted on an $18 million loan.

The default allowed Graves and Black Enterprise to control the board of directors - even though their $12 million investment gave them only 18 percent of the stock.

Mays did not return calls to his cellphone. His longtime partner, corporate muscle man and sometime rapper, Raymond "Benzino" Scott, did finally catch up with Media Ink and gave us a sample of his philosophy.

He said he was living "somewhere in sunny Florida" and had just put in a new diving board on his swimming pool. "It never stops for Benzino," he said.

Benzino said, "You know what bankruptcy means - it means everything you owe, you don't owe anymore. More people should look into it, especially in the 'hood."

Benzino said he has moved on since getting the boot from The Source and is busy opening a new nightclub in South Beach to be called ZNO's Lounge.

On the tax rap that he faces after a lengthy investigation in Boston, he said he turned down a plea deal that would have given him an 18-month sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to failure to pay income taxes.

Scott said he expects a trial to start in September in Boston. David Finkler, the lawyer representing Mays in his battle for control of The Source, did not return calls.


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