UPDATED: Questions raised, lawsuits filed, over funds marked for local-music foundation in Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — On Thursday afternoon, the following email came into Pegasus News:

Anju Gill was a big music fan who attended many local shows and supported bands so fervently that she earned a place in many musicians' hearts.

"In the singer-songwriter world inhabited by myself and Chris Holt and Trey Johnson and Salim Nourallah, the bread and butter is connection with the individual in audience," says musician Rahim Quazi. "So when an Anju Gill comes along that stands in front and watches you and sings along on every word, and from such a pure place... she was a true fan of the live song being sung, and had no inhibitions about expressing her gratitude towards the people she would go and see."

In April 2006, Gill killed herself. A year later, with the $10,000 stake from her family, the Anju Gill Foundation was created, to "preserve and perpetuate Anju's love and support of the local music scene and the artists who contribute to it in her name".

A board was created with musicians (Salim, Rahim, plus Salim's wife Jayme) and business-types (Diana Bacon, Sara Blanton) who ostensibly knew how to deal with foundations and funds. A source says that the $10K check, co-addressed to Bend Studio and Jayme Nourallah was then given to Bend owner Ally David.

The first event was on May 19, 2007, "An Intimate Evening with Salim Nourallah and Rahim Quazi". The most recent Anju benefit took place on September 3, which also memorialized the one-year anniversary of Carter Albrecht's death.

After the September 3 memorial, Salim Nourallah posted an entry on his blog expressing his doubts about the disposition of the Anju Gill Foundation monies (noted, then deleted on Salim's request, by Cindy Chaffin).

Today, the lawsuits ensued: One filed by the Anju Gill Foundation against David and Bend Studio for misuse of the funds; and another for $1.5 million filed by David for "defamation of character".

The musicians involved can't discuss what happened, while David said, "It’s a complete lie. I can’t talk about it."

But meanwhile, the foundation fund-raising events will go on, with two showcases coming up: one on October 2 at Club Dada with Philip Creamer and Sammy Strittmatter, followed by a multi-band showcase on November 15.

UPDATE: DC9 obtained the case documents for the dueling lawsuits between the Anju Gill Foundation and Ally David/Bend Studio, as follows:

Here is a copy of the lawsuit filed by Ally David/Bend Studio against Salim Nourallah. ("For a period of time, Defendant has made statements to the effect that the Plaintiff was a thief, a con artist, a scammer and misappropriated a substantial sum of money that was raised and/or donated to an unincorporated entity concerning Anju Gill, Deceased. ... In particular, the Defendant stated, in relevant parts in his web Blog and elsewhere that he is concerned with the whereabouts of a substantial sum of money that was raised and/or donated to the Anju Gill Fund ")

Here is a copy of the lawsuit filed by the Anju Gill Foundation (AGF) against Ally David/Bend Studio. ("AGF recently requested an accounting of the funds entrusted to Ally David's care and responsibility. After several attempts to obtain information from her about the funds raised for the AGF, Ally David admitted that she spent the funds.")