R. Kelly Victims Awarded $10.5M For ‘Surviving’ Docuseries Terrorist Threats

R. Kelly has to write another check to more victims after they brought a lawsuit against him and his former manager, Donnell Russell, for making terrorist threats.

TMZ obtained copies of the civil order granting the six victims a total of $10.5 million on Friday (August 25). According to the suit, the six victims were trying to host a screening for the Surviving R. Kelly documentary back in September 2018, but Kelly and Russell got the screening shut down after allegedly making terroristic threats against the victims.

“The defendants waged a campaign, starting back in May 2018, to intimidate the women, A&E/Lifetime and the producers to stop screening the docuseries,” reported the outlet. “When those efforts, including legal threats, failed … they claimed Kelly’s camp called producers on the night of the NYC screening and said someone was ‘going to shoot up the place.'”

As a result of the threats, the six victims now suffer from PTSD and panic attacks, for which this civil suit is compensating them.

Despite sitting behind bars for the next 30 years, R. Kelly’s financial woes show no signs of slowing down. On Wednesday (August 23), U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly signed an order demanding that Kelly and his label, Universal Music Group, turn over more than $500,000 in royalties to give the victims of his sex abuse crimes the restitution that they’ve asked for in court.

The order previously demanded that the “Ignition” singer turn over $28,000, which was in his prison canteen.

Last month, prosecutors in Brooklyn, NY, filed a writ of continuing garnishment, which is what’s filed by creditors (in this case, the government, acting on behalf of R. Kelly’s victims) against debtors (R. Kelly’s record labels) to collect money owed in a judgment.

“The outstanding balance on the aforesaid judgment is $504,289.73, including interest, as of June 1, 2023. Interest is continuing to accrue,” read the documents filed against Kelly’s label Sony Music Entertainment.

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The courts filed the writ of continuing garnishment against R. Kelly’s label because it is “in possession of property” belonging to the disgraced singer that can be used to pay down the debt, if not eliminate it altogether.

In March, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Heather Williams was entitled to access the disgraced singer’s label fund — which was reportedly valued at $1.5 million in 2020, according to Billboard — before Midwest Commercial Funding, a property manager that won its own separate $3.5 million ruling against Kelly over unpaid rent on a Chicago studio.

Williams won a $4million judgment against Kelly in 2020 after filing a civil lawsuit against him a year prior. She alleged that when she was 16, the “Ignition” hitmaker lured her to his studio on a promise she could be in a music video and then had sex with her multiple times as a minor.