Kanye West was found liable in a lawsuit over unpaid wages and wrongful termination involving his Malibu home.
According to reports by Rolling Stone and NBC News, the rapper has been ordered to pay $140,000 (£105,000) to project manager Tony Saxon, who claimed he was underpaid, injured, forced to live in poor conditions, and wrongfully terminated.
Saxon had asked for $1.7 million (£1.27 million) in compensation, but the jury awarded no additional punitive damages.
The decision follows a two-week trial during which Saxon alleged he wasn’t paid while working on the renovation of West’s $57 million (£42.6 million) Malibu mansion.
West, who also goes by Ye, purchased the house in 2021 and stripped it of all interior fixtures and fittings. In August 2024, Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim, whose brokerage sold the property, confirmed it was in escrow (held by a neutral third party). It was subsequently sold for $21 million (£15.7 million).
According to a civil complaint first filed in September 2023 and obtained by People magazine, Saxon was hired as a project manager for the property in September 2021. He was also allegedly hired to act as “full-time security” and a “live-in caretaker” for the home at a pay rate of $20,000 (£15,000) a week.
Saxon claimed he only ever received one of those payments.
Meanwhile, West’s attorneys said bank records show Saxon was paid $240,000 (£179,000) for his work.
In a statement shared with People, a representative for West and his wife, Bianca Censori, said the jury only awarded damages related to Saxon’s claims that he was injured while working on the property.
The rep added that the team is now moving onto a “larger and more consequential case” regarding Saxon and his attorney’s “unlawful mechanic’s lien on Ye’s Malibu property”.
