According to a Businessweek report, Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant's camp has dismissed his federal lawsuit against his ex-accountant. Based on the two-page filing Durant and K. Durant Enterprises LLC have jointly submitted on Friday, the NBA star will no longer pursue his $600,000 lawsuit against Joel Lynn Elliott. in a San Jose, California federal court. The filing however, was not clear whether a settlement between Durant and Elliott had happened.
The Bleacher Report said that the lawsuit against Elliott was spurred due to Durant's troubles with the Internal Revenue Service. "Fees paid to a personal chef would not be regarded by a reasonably prudent accountant as qualifying for a business expense deduction," said Durant in his lawsuit against Elliott.
Moreover, Durant claimed that because of Elliott's unscrupulous accounting practices, he was forced to tap another accounting firm to fix all of his tax returns in order to get back in the IRS' good graces. Durant was suing Elliott for professional negligence, deducting personal expenses improperly and without documentation, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. Durant is reportedly seeking $200,000 for each of the claims, Businessweek said.
The Bleacher Report said that the lawsuit would not be the type of distraction that could affect Durant as he wraps up his stint at the annual NBA All-Star Weekend. Despite hauling 38 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Eastern conference team, it was not enough to secure a win against the Western Conference squad.
When asked about the talk about his skills against Lebron James, the sports blog quoted Durant as provided by The Oklahoman's Darnell Mayberry, "No. Because just like it didn't matter when they said I was the No. 2 player in the NBA, it doesn't matter now. That doesn't float my boat. I just go out there and play the game and have fun. It's cool for people to say I'm the best player or an MVP candidate or whatever. But you got to ignore good and bad noise, and I think that's the reason that I've been at peace with myself. Just realizing what I'm playing the game for and it's much more than what people rank you as a player."
