Cecil Taylor Scammed!

[Ron Thorne]

Man busted for scamming Jazz great out of $500K



Cecil Taylor was allegedly swindled by Noel Muir, who authorities say took the jazz great's Kyoto Award prize money.
Photo: Handout

By Josh Saul
August 12, 2014 | 1:00pm

A Long Island man was charged Tuesday with stealing almost $500,000 that an elderly Brooklyn jazz great had been awarded by a Japanese arts foundation, the Brooklyn district attorney said.

Noel Muir, 54, helped pianist and composer Cecil Taylor, 85, travel to Japan to accept the prestigious Kyoto Award on Nov. 6, 2013, but then told the foundation to deposit the 50 million Yen prize into his own Citibank account, prosecutors charge.

Taylor, who released an album with jazz legend John Coltrane and played for President Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn, expressed his pain at being ripped off by someone he’d trusted.

“What is painful in your heart is you have friends, that’s what friends are for, and if they make a mistake, hopefully the law will take care of them,” said Taylor at a press conference.

When asked whether he had any shows planned, the jazz great said, “I’m not performing now. I will, but I’m not doing it now. Sometimes it’s best to cool.”

“He should not have been ripped off,” DA Ken Thompson said. “We are determined to get back every dime for Mr. Taylor.”

Muir met Taylor through a mutual friend, law-enforcement sources said.

Muir’s defense attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

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From Newsday.com, more info. about Cecil Taylor's "friend" and the scam:




Originally published: August 12, 2014 11:29 AM
Updated: August 12, 2014 9:43 PM


Contractor accused of stealing prize money from
famed jazz pianist Cecil Taylor


By DARRAN SIMON AND GARY DYMSKI


A general contractor from Uniondale [NY] swindled famed jazz pianist Cecil Taylor out of nearly a half-million dollars in international prize money, Brooklyn prosecutors said Tuesday.

Noel Muir, 54, of 79 Argyle Ave., was to be arraigned Tuesday in Brooklyn Criminal Court on a charge of second-degree grand larceny after he turned himself in to the King's County district attorney's office, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson said.

The stolen money was a gift Taylor, 85, was scheduled to receive last year for being one of three recipients of the 2013 Kyoto Prize, which the Inamori Foundation of Japan announced in June 2013.

Recipients are flown to Japan to receive the honor given to those who have made significant contributions to "the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind," according to the foundation.

A close friend of Taylor's reported the theft to Thompson's office this year, officials said.

Muir befriended Taylor while working on a brownstone in Fort Greene next door to Taylor's Brooklyn residence, prosecutors said in a release.

Muir helped with trip preparations, accompanying Taylor to Japan on Nov. 6, and arranged for receipt of the award money, prosecutors said.

He instructed the foundation to send the prize to his own bank account and "falsely stated that the name on the account is The Cecil Taylor Foundation, when, in fact, the name on the account is actually MCAI Construction," which is Muir's company, prosecutors said.

The investigation shows that since the $492,722.55 in prize money was wired into the account Nov. 20, it has been depleted, prosecutors said.

If convicted, Muir faces up to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Muir's attorney, James Costo, in an email statement said his client "maintains his innocence." He said that the bank account that held the prize money had been "set up with Mr. Taylor's knowledge and approval."

Prosecutors said they have filed a civil asset forfeiture action against Muir in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn to recover the money. . . .

[The article concludes with a brief blurb on Cecil Taylor's music in which Thelonious is misspelled.]

The theft took place in November 2013; "a close friend of Taylor's reported the theft to [the DA's] office this year" [2014]; and the alleged perp wasn't scheduled to be arraigned until August 2014. The wheels of justice seem to be turning very slowly, but maybe that's common.

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And an article with a different point of view:

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A Long Island contractor was sentenced on Monday to one to three years in prison for stealing nearly $500,000 in prize money awarded to his friend, the jazz pianist Cecil Taylor.

The contractor, Noel Muir, 55, of Uniondale, N.Y., pleaded guilty to larceny last month for having stolen the money awarded to Mr. Taylor by the Inamori Foundation of Japan in June 2013 as part of his Kyoto Prize. The prizes recognize cultural, scientific and spiritual achievements.

Mr. Muir, who befriended Mr. Taylor while working on his brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, accompanied the jazz musician to Japan in November 2013 and then arranged to have the prize money — $492,722.55 — deposited into his own Citibank account. Documents that Mr. Muir sent to the foundation falsely stated that the name on that account was the Cecil Taylor Foundation.

Mr. Muir has returned $200,000 to Mr. Taylor, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said, and has promised to give back the rest.

The defendant “shamefully bilked an elderly, vulnerable man,” Ken Thompson, the district attorney, said in a statement on Monday. “In doing so,” Mr. Thompson added, “the defendant pretended to be Cecil Taylor’s friend, but this guilty plea and sentence show that he was just a thief.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/nyregion/man-who-stole-jazz-pianist-cecil-taylors-prize-money-is-sentenced.html