What a fascinating turn of events. In March of this year Victory Records was chest-thumping all the way to a a #3 and controversial debut on the album chart with Hawthorne Heights' album If Only You Were Lonely. Now, as reported by Billboard.com, Hawthorne Heights has sued Victory Records and label head Tony Brummel, claiming Brummel and Victory of "taking advantage" of the band and "severely damaging the band's reputation and relationship with its fans."

One aspect of the complaint is that Brummel's battle with Ne-Yo, which was undertaken in the name of Hawthorne Heights, resulted in the band being labeled as racist. That should be much more difficult to litigate than its claims of "egregiously fraudulent accounting practices." The band's debt to Victory, according to Billboard.com, is over $1 million even though the label has generated over $10 million dollars in sales of Hawthorne Heights music, videos and merchandise. (If Only You Were Lonely has sold 396,000 to date. Nearly one third of that came in the first week.)

The complaint specifies alleged fraudulent royalty statements such as a failure to pay mechanical royalties for digital downloads, ringtones and foreign sales and licensing. Hawthorne Heights also alleges Victory failed to pay public performance royalties, charged the band 100% of coop advertising rather than the agreed-upon 50% and improperly accounted for mechanical royalties.

For all the fun allegations, read a PDF of the complaint, found via a thread at The Velvet Rope.