WHERE'S THE MONEY GONE?

Hard time ahead for some American songwriters, as the FBI and IRS enter the headquarters of the Songwriter's Guild of America to investigate claims that the royalty manager - and members of her family - had been helping themselves to the cash.

According to a federal civil lawsuit the SGA filed in July, Marsha Aiken became the guild's royalty manager in 2002 and created a fraudulent membership account under the name Anthony Ray, who the IRS later identified as her cousin. She began writing unauthorized royalty checks to Ray from the SGA's general account -- where the unlocated writers' funds are held -- and mailing them to him in Rhode Island.

It looks as if they spent some of the alleged misdirected funds into property; Brooklyn district court issued an injunction preventing those under investigation from selling property in St Albans (the New York one, rather than the Home Counties one).

The SGA is meant to be looking after the affairs of 5,000 songwriters and their estates.

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