Rich Vreede - Black Cat Entertainment

Rich Vreede, also known as "Black Cat Entertainment" is a Los Angeles based music promoter that has allegedly been ripping off bands and investors for years now, earning him the nickname "The Bernie Madoff of CON-cert Promoters".

In February of 2012, he was escorted out of the Mayan Theater by police for his safety after he was unable/unwilling to pay bands and investors after a packed concert where jilted bands and investors were waiting outside the venue for their money.

The way he usually works is he gets multiple investors to front the money for the concert, neglecting to tell them that there are other investors involved, making it impossible for him to pay back each investor their money, much less a return on investment. He short-pays or refused to pay bands so often that he has a hard time finding new bands that will agree to play for his concerts so he often flys unsuspecting bands from out of the country, sometimes without a return flight home.

Its unknown whether he pockets the money, or simply doesn't have the money to pay but the bottom line is that normally when he promotes an event, innocent people often get hurt financially. There have been reports that some bands eventually get paid if they go to his house and threaten him physically.

Contracts mean nothing to him as he reportedly has no assets to go after and reportedly has no job or income other than promoting concerts and parties and lives at home with his parents though he is well in his 40s.

The genre of music he promotes is typically a genre called "psychobilly" but he has also been known to promote 80's parties and Morrisey or Smiths' tribute parties. He's worked at Henry Fonda Theater, Mayan Theater, Knitting Factory and promotes fairly regularly at Vertigo Lounge and other venues where the venues either don't know or don't care about his reputation for ripping people off.