BRONFMAN TURNS WMG INTO A “FAMILY BUSINESS”

Just as his dad did in giving him control of Seagram, WMG chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. is making sure he takes care of his family.

SEC documents filed earlier this year reveal that Junior OK’d a distribution and upstream deal with Green Owl Records, whose majority shareholder is rock musician Benjamin Brewer, Bronfman’s son from his former marriage to actress Sherri Brewer, whose only credit is a role in the movie Shaft. Green Owl has a two-year-plus option deal with WMG, but so far nothing has been released through the agreement. If that’s the case, what’s the money being used for?

This isn’t the first instance of nepotism during Bronfman’s tenure atop WMG. He gave his brother-in-law Alex Zubillaga a $3 million-per-year salary and a sizable chunk of stock options, which Zubillaga dumped on the open market when he left the company earlier this year.

But here’s where the plot really thickens. Bronfman’s family ties extend to a November 2006 deal, listed in the above-mentioned SEC filing, for a three-year licensing agreement with Lev Group Ltd. for the “distribution of Warner Music Group repertoire in Israel in digital and physical formats.”

Holly. B. Lev, who’s listed as owning 100% of the Lev Group, is Bronfman’s sister. Lev has a colorful background, adopting the name Bhavani when she co-founded the company Organic India, a Google search reveals, but she had no known connection to the music business until securing the deal distribution deal from her brother.

Googling the name Lev Group Ltd. produces no results whatsoever, begging the question: exactly what kind of company is Lev, and does it have deals with any other labels? Helicon distributes UMG and EMI in Israel, while SBMG has gone through NMC United Entertainment for years.