Las Vegas Weekly

September 4, 2008 · 11:32 AM

$100 million man, Terry Fator, hits back at lawsuit

By Robin Leach

Photo: TVT

Terry Fator and Robin Leach

No sooner did America’s Got Talent $1 million winner Terry Fator land his new $100 million, five-year contract at the Mirage starting Feb. 14 than "people from the past" hired lawyers in an attempt to snatch away a major part of his earnings! Former fired manager John Raymond wants a piece of the Mirage millions even though he’d been terminated long before and never had a meeting with those hotel executives or the Hilton entertainment officials, where Terry appears monthly.

Terry will be at the Hilton next weekend (Sept. 15-17) and again Oct. 13-15 – and even though Raymond had been let go months earlier, he brazenly demands a staggering percentage of the paychecks! Raymond claims he was hired in 2003 to be Terry’s manager, then four years later, Terry performed his singing impressionist ventriloquist act on America’s Got Talent and hit overnight super-stardom. Raymond, who ran his Encore Entertainment Network showbiz efforts from Montana -- not exactly the center of showbiz -- was fired because of alleged work failures by Terry last November - way before the new Mirage contract was negotiated and signed in May of this year. As a gesture of goodwill, Terry kept Raymond on as a merchandise administrator.

Photo: TVT

Terry Fator on stage with a puppet.

Now the fired employee is demanding a staggering 20 percent share of Terry’s earnings in his lawsuit. He is represented by attorneys Mark Solomon, Alan Freer and Jeffrey Luszeck of Solomon, Dwiggins and Freer of Las Vegas. They filed the case in the 8th Judicial District Court. Raymond claims that as recently as Aug. 20 he was pitching Strip hotels to book Terry -- but as Luxe Life readers know from Terry himself (Click here for that guest column) he was turned down cold. However, Raymond adds that after Terry won America's Got Talent on Aug. 21 he still tried to get more employment opportunities.

Terry, through a spokesman, told Luxe Life that they welcome their day in court to show that Raymond had nothing to do with the Hilton and Mirage engagements and thus his greedy demand for some $20 million is totally without foundation! "His record will speak for itself. Terry is totally the good guy in all of this and that will be easily seen immediately," Terry’s agent, John McEntee, told me.

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