Founder of Jingle Punks and Audio Up Media Jared Gustatt Singer-songwriter and actor accused of sexual assault in new lawsuit mary quince (professionally known as Scarlett Burke), she claims the influential executive “trapped her in a cycle of manipulation, abuse and exploitation” for years.
The complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday (December 31) alleges that Gutstadt “manipulated” Koons into entering into a sexual relationship under the guise of advancing her career; he repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted her; “Isolate” her from career opportunities “unless she meets his sexual and logistical demands”; when she attempts to escape his control, she “engages in stalking, harassment, intimidation and retaliation” – in the process “causing her caused significant and irreparable economic and occupational harm.”
Audio Up and Anthem Entertainment (the former parent company of Jingle Punks, the creative music agency Gutstadt founded in 2008) are also named as defendants in the lawsuit because they allegedly “provided Gutstadt with substantial financial control and decision-making power by exerting substantial financial control and decision-making power over Jingle Punks.” Städtadt facilitated Koons’ control”. [her] Professional opportunities and working conditions, particularly through her employment and contractual relationship with Jingle Punks.
These accusations were first made by Los Angeles Times.
Gutstadt is best known for founding Jingle Punks and the podcast network Audio Up, which he launched in 2020. In July, Anthem and Gutstadt formed a joint venture that allows Audio Up to develop scripted podcasts using some of the publishing and intellectual property assets he created at Jingle Punks. In October, Jingle Punks was acquired by music licensing company Slipstream, along with Anthem’s other production music businesses. (Slipstream is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.)
According to a complaint filed by Los Angeles attorneys Samuel Brown In Hennig Kramer and Parisis Philippatos, Tanveer Rahman and Gabriel Rosen Harvey At Filippatos New York — Koons met Gustatt in 2017, when she was 27 and he was 39. Causing severe emotional and psychological trauma”. According to the complaint. “This relentless pattern of abuse culminated in Ms. Koons feeling she had no choice but to comply with Mr. Gustatt’s sexual demands to avoid the dire consequences of rejecting him.”
In the lawsuit, Koons claims she met Gustadt in May 2017 at the Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, where Gustadt’s band, The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra, had a residency. That night, she said, Gustatt immediately “attentioned” to her and later asked his assistant to contact Koons’ then-manager to arrange a meeting. Over the following weeks, Koons claims Gustatt “launched an elaborate campaign to groom” her, “bombarding her with information about prestigious career opportunities designed to attract and overwhelm her,” inviting her Dinners with high-profile music and TV executives and trips to Nashville and Lake Tahoe with her “under the guise of collaborative music projects” for Jingle Punks’ then-parent company ole Music (later Anthem) .
Koons said that within a week of meeting Gustat, he asked her to record “Let the Dice Roll,” a song he planned to use as the theme song for a Netflix series girl imprisoned. “This marked the beginning of her collaboration with Jingle Punks and her beginning to fall into his manipulative control,” the lawsuit states. After Netflix acquired the song, Koons claimed that Gustat only paid her $500 (“It’s clear that By underpaying, it ignores the value of her work and contribution”) and retains the copyright to the song.
According to the lawsuit, the first incident of alleged abuse by Koons occurred “in or around” June 2017, when Gutstadt invited Koons to a dinner attended by “several prominent music executives.” After driving her back to her Studio City apartment, Koons said Gustatt “began to continually pressure her to kiss him, and when she was forced to agree to kiss him on the cheek, he” Turning his head at the last moment, he tricked her into kissing his lips.
The following month, Koons said Gustadt invited her to Nashville for a week-long writing session with him and his team, during which she said she was put up in a dilapidated “car along the interstate.” Inn,” a half-hour drive from Nashville. The Thompson Hotel where Gustatt stayed. She claimed she felt unsafe and asked Gutstadt to move her to another hotel, but instead of offering her her own room, he manipulated her into staying in his room. Koons claims the first sexual assault occurred that night, claiming Gustatt “forcibly grabbed her hand and placed it on his penis” and “ignored her pleas for him to stop.”
Koons said that over the next few months, Gustatt “overwhelmed” her with “lavish gifts and gestures,” including freelance opportunities, and “deliberately connected” her with supportive people in his life. People isolated themselves, including her manager, “who, like many others, realized something was wrong and tried to separate her from Gutstadt.
Koons said the alleged abuse took place over the next seven and a half years and she said Gustatt’s “manipulative tactics paved the way for his coercive relationship with her”. She said that around August 2017, Koons invited her to a Jingle Punks corporate retreat in Lake Tahoe, only to again trick her into sharing a hotel room with him and not let her participate in any “team-building activities.” Koons said it was around this time that she became aware of the culture of “misogyny” in punk bands and anthems, including an alleged incident at a Tahoe resort where a male punk band music director tried to A female composer of a punk band was attacked in a hotel. Koons claimed that while the company was aware of the alleged incident, “no action was taken” to address the issue.
Koons said she was then “lured into an intermittent affair” with Gustatt, who she said “also repeatedly resorted to coercion and manipulation to convince Ms. Koons that she must be with him.” to advance her career”—while being denied the opportunity to “profit from her work” as a company songwriter and cut off from outside job opportunities. In a report, she said that when Deutsche Advertising offered her a job, Gutstadt “became enraged” and insulted her, then forced her to tell Deutsche Advertising executives that any future job opportunities would Need to go through Gutstadt and punk jingle.
According to the lawsuit, Koons said Gutstadt ultimately made her completely financially dependent on him in an effort to “solidify his dominance over her,” after which “the abuse escalated significantly.” Each time she said she tried to loosen his hold on her, he allegedly lured her back with lucrative job offers on high-profile projects, including paid writing courses for films Troll and a chance to write for country star Chris Stapleton.
In the fall of 2018, Koons said that after taking her to the Emmy Awards, Gutstadt actually forced her to have sex with him in his office because he made her “feel grateful for his invitation.” . “This was not consensual sex,” the lawsuit states. In October of that year, she said Gustatt manipulated her into signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with Gustatt or his company that was “not related to any specific project.” She said that after signing the agreement, Gustatt “warned her that if she spoke out, no one would believe her and that breaching the confidentiality agreement would not only destroy her career but allow him to completely destroy her.” She claimed, As a party to the confidentiality agreement, ole Music (now Anthem) “exerted additional control over Ms. Koons by limiting her ability to speak publicly about Gustatt’s alleged abuse.”
Koons claims the abuse escalated after she signed a nondisclosure agreement and she was forced to take jobs with Gustadt, Jingle Punks, ole Music and Audio Up, including signing multiple agreements with companies that “stripped her of creative ownership.” and refused to give her adequate financial compensation. According to the lawsuit, one of the alleged agreements is a development deal with Jingle Punks and ole Music Make up as you goa podcast series based on Koons’ original music – Koons effectively “gave up her creative rights” and received only $10,000, described as “a paltry and insulting amount that grossly understates her contribution,” and highlighted the exploitative nature of the agreement.
The lawsuit includes multiple allegations of physical abuse. In an April 2019 incident described in the complaint, Koons claimed that Gutstadt “took most of the money she earned from taking a two-day German songwriting course,” she allegedly said After the protest, he “became violent” and began beating her and her daughter. In another incident in October 2019, Koons claimed Gustatt “violently pushed her to the ground” after she tried to read text messages between him and his wife.
In another account of alleged abuse, Koons claimed that while she was recording two songs with him and another songwriter at Audio Up’s Audio Castle in Los Angeles in January 2022, she woke up in the middle of the night to find Gustatt “Rape her in her sleep.” She alleges that Gutstadt raped her again in September 2023 while they were staying at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, California for the Audio Up writing retreat. She refused his sexual advances” and became furious, and then raped her.
She said Anthem/ole Music “contributed” to a culture of “harassment and intimidation” during Koons’ alleged relationship with Gustatt, which “cemented its continued abuse of Koons and Jingle Punks employees against many others.” collusion among female employees.”
“Mr. Gutstadt’s intentional and retaliatory conduct has marginalized Ms. Koons, hindered her career advancement and hindered her visibility in the industry,” the complaint reads, adding that she “has and continues to Suffering severe emotional distress,” including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Koons is seeking relief including compensatory damages, lost wages and earnings, a monetary judgment for “mental anguish, anguish and severe emotional distress,” punitive and punitive damages, and more.
Representatives for Gutstadt, Anthem and Audio Up have yet to respond advertising billboardRequests for comment were requested by press time.
