Utsick extradited from Brazil

Former international promoter and entrepreneur Jack Utsick hasd been extradited from Brazil to Miami (on 6th December) to face federal charges for operating a Ponzi (pyramid) scheme according to reports in the Miami Herald. Designated a fugitive in 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had charged him in 2006 with defrauding investors out of $300 million and, despite agreeing a deal to repay some of the money, he fled to Brazil in 2007. Utsick, who had been under arrest in Brazil while fighting his extradition over the past two years, appeared Monday on nine counts of mail fraud in Miami federal court. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman ruled that the 72-year-old Utsick would be held before trial, until he resolves his choice of defense attorneys.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article4336931.html

SFX acquires Plus Talent in Brazil

SFX's has acquired Brazil-based talent agency and event promoter Plus Talent - the two companies recently cooperated to bring the Tomorrowland festival franchise to the country. Confirming the deal, SFX chief Robert FX Sillerman told reporters: "Plus Talent is an extremely talented and creative company, with the deepest experience in the Brazilian market. [Its management team] understand every aspect of the business and we are delighted to have them in the SFX family of companies". Plus Talent co-founder Luiz Eurico Klotz added: "Partnering with SFX is the next logical step for our company. Bringing brands like Tomorrowland to Brazil is a watershed moment for the scene we have so carefully nurtured here for the last 20 years. We are excited to continue to bring new brands, experiences and partners to Brazilian fans".

Acrobat dies in tragic pendulum accident

A circus performer has fallen to his death during a live show in Brazil. Wilson Gomes Barreto, 28, was performing trick known as Russian Litter in which 14 acrobats swing from pendulums down into safety nets. when it went horribly wrong. Reports say that he fell 35 feet onto the stage at a show in Londrina, southern Brazil. Emergency workers rushed to his aid and the lights were cut. He was conscious and complained of a fractured elbow after the fall but after being taken to a local hospital, Barreto died two days later. Circus director Richard Massone said the incident was a tragedy for the Tihany circus troupe. 

Brazilian nightclub owner 'wishes he had never been born'

The owner of the Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil where more than 230 people died in a fire last weekend has said he wishes he had never been born, and has deflected blame to architects, safety inspectors and “the whole country”. His lawyer,  Jader Marques, said his client, Elissandro Spohr (28), "regretted having ever been born" because of his grief over the fire, but still blamed Sunday's tragedy on "a succession of errors made by the whole country." Spohr and co-owner Mauro Hoffman have been arrested along with  Gurizada Fandangueira member Marcelo Santos who was arrested at the wake of band member Danilo Jacques who died in the fire.

As the toll of those injured continued to grow as some 22 of those who escaped returned to hospital with respiratory complications, police investigating the blaze have confirmed it is likely to have started when the band Gurizada Fandangueira lit an allegedly cheap outdoor flare, which ignited soundproofing foam on the ceiling. That initial error was compounded by the near-total lack of emergency infrastructure such as a fire alarms or sprinkler systems. It also seems that the club also had only one working door, one or more faulty and sub-standard fire extinguishers and has not been inspected in the last twelve months.  A number of details are disputed by the local Fire Department.

Marques denied reports that the club was overcrowded, insisting there were only 600 to 700 people in the club at any one time – below the 700 capacity. One performer told media that the space was packed with an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 people and local Police have given the same estimate but Marques insisted that any higher tallies of people at the club that night were due to club-goers cycling in and out

As Brazil looks forward to hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, lawmakers in the lower house in Brasilia have already begun working on a proposal that would require federal safety minimum standards across Brazil rather than state regulations.  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who met with the bereaved relatives, has called for a stricter safety rules across the country. The newspaper O Globo reported that the mayor's office in Santa Maria has ordered all nightclubs closed for 30 days while inspections are carried out and The BBC reported that mayors from at least eight major Brazilian cities, including seven of the 12 World Cup host cities, have thus far announced new measures aimed at preventing similar tragedies.

More here and here 

Brazil the latest scene for another nightclub disaster

News reports are coming in that at least 231 people have died in a fire in a Brazilian nightclub, with fears that the death toll could rise further. The blaze, at the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, in the south of Brazil, apparently began when a band lit a flare or fireworks which ignited sound proofing foam on the ceiling. Guitarist Rodrigo Martins, whose band Gurizada Fandangueira was playing at the time of the fire told Radio Gaucha: "We had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning. It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, and our singer tried to use it but it wasn't working". Reports suggest that as furniture and fittings in the club started to burn, toxic fumes spread, adding to the death toll.

Eyewitnesses also say that fire extinguishers in the venue didn't work, and that the evacuation of the building was hindered because security guards - not realising what was happening inside - wouldn't let people leave the club before they had settled their tabs, the venue seemingly operating a special card-payment system. Around 200 people have been injured and television pictures showed fire fighters trying to break down walls with sledgehammers and axes to get people out of the club. Reports say that the venue was 1,000 people over capacity when the blaze started in the University town. and it seems that there was no emergency exit available and people rushed to the only way out of the building in panic, local officials said. Some people died of asphyxiation, others from being trampled, they added, most aged between 18 and 20.

It's grim reading and what has anyone learned? Back in 2003 the Great White disaster in the USA left 100 dead when the band's fireworks ignited sound proofing at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island. A tragic venue fire in a club in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2004 left 174 dead. The disaster at the Santika Nightclub in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008 left 61 dead, and the fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 112 in 2009, and again caused by fireworks igniting the venue's plastic ceiling. In Scotland, tragedy was narrowly averted at the Luna nightclub in Edinburgh when indoor fireworks, predictably, ignited plastic netting across the venue's roof in 2009. And it happens AGAIN?

Police in Brazil have now made four arrests. It is thought that the four men arrested include two co-owners of the venue destroyed in the fire, the venue’s security chief and one member of Gurizada Fandangueira, the band playing when the fire occurred. Police stressed that the arrests so far were for "investigative purposes". One of the owners of the club is reported to have confirmed that they were in the process of renewing its licence to operate, and that its fire safety certificate had expired last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21232740

Photo from Facebook/1santamariense and shots  from amateur videos here and here

http://rt.com/news/night-fire-dead-brazil-833/

Brazil blocks EMI mergers

Both Sony/ATV and Universal have been told by the Brazilian competition regulator that they could not merge the respective EMI publishing and recorded music  businesses with their existing companies in Brazil. This is a more difficult position that both majors faced in Europe where divestments had been agreed. US regulators did not set any hurdles for the two mergers, seemingly relying on the EC measures with the recorded music sector. In one of his first interviews since acquiring the EMI record companies, Universal chief Lucian Grainge said he planned to launch EMI's American label brand Capitol in the UK, the mega-major having been forced to sell off EMI's UK-based Parlophone brand by European regulators.