{"id":317930,"date":"2025-11-28T03:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T03:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/317930\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T03:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T03:49:18","slug":"six-ex-cradle-of-filth-members-file-lawsuit-against-dani-filth-and-associated-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/317930\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Ex-Cradle of Filth Members File Lawsuit Against Dani Filth and Associated Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when you thought the ugly split that happened between Cradle of Filth<\/a> and former keyboardist and vocalist Zoe Marie Federoff and ex-guitarist Marek \u201cAshok\u201d Smerda was old news, a new heaping serving of litigation<\/a> has reignited the conversation. And this time, some old faces have joined the legal fray.<\/p>\n

According to a Reddit post<\/a> from yesterday afternoon and initial reporting by ThePRP<\/a>, a multi-faceted lawsuit was filed in Arizona on September 30th, 2025 against Cradle of Filth vocalist Dani Filth (aka Daniel Lloyd Davey), Cradle Of Filth Touring Limited, Cradle Of Filth LLP, and The Oracle Management. Following an amendment on November 20, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit now include: Federoff and Smerda; ex-guitarist Paul Allender, who played from 1992 to 1995 and 1999 to 2014; ex-guitarist Richard Shaw, who played from 2014 to 2022; ex-keyboardist and vocalist Lindsay Matheson (aka Lindsay Schoolcraft), who played from 2013 to 2020; and professional model Sasha Baxter (aka Sasha Massacre), who appeared in the \u201cTo Live Deliciously\u201d and \u201cMalignant Percection\u201d music videos.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are leveling a wide range of complaints against the defendants, including copyright infringement, misappropriation of likenesses in merchandise, defamation, unjust enrichment, unpaid royalties for live shows and past albums, unauthorized use of copyrighted works, among other charges.<\/p>\n

You may recall that back in August, Federoff quit the band<\/a> while they were mid-tour. Though she initially issued a statement that largely remained quiet about her reasons for leaving, she shortly began leveling accusations against the band\u2019s frontman Dani Filth and The Oracle Management, the management company run by Coal Chamber frontman Dez Fafara and his and Anahstasia Fafara.<\/p>\n

While this was going on, Federoff\u2019s husband Smerda was still in the band. And though he had his own issues with how things were going, he said he would be leaving the band after the tour was over<\/a>. Well, Dani had different plans and fired Smerda later that day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After that, all hell broke loose, with a verbal tit-for-tat spawning among everyone involved. The married couple made allegations of poor management, the existence of a \u201cthreatening\u201d environment within the band, and very low wages for their contributions. Federoff even posted a past contract that she said backed her claims, stating that she and Smerda refused to sign it.<\/p>\n

Filth retorted, claiming that the two were alcoholics that were in a toxic relationship<\/a>. That relationship, he claimed, created a \u201cdisruptive atmosphere for everyone involved\u201d that included verbal and physical abuse. Filth at one point alleged that Federoff suffered a miscarriage because of her drinking. He also defended The Oracle Management and the Fafaras, stating that they had been \u201cnothing short of wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today and you now have the lawsuit in full swing. In their complaint, Federoff, Smerda, Matheson, Allender and Shaw claim they never signed any agreement allowing Cradle of Filth or its business entities to use their names, images, or likeness on any merch and as a result, they weren\u2019t properly compensated.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Federoff, Smerda, and Matheson said they never signed any agreements for any work they did on past albums, while Smerda, Shaw, and Matheson say they weren\u2019t fairly compensated for ther recording with the band from 2017 to 2023. Shaw said he was eventually paid \u00a3500 for sound recordings in 2023. Federoff and Smerda also claim they were never compensated for their final shows with the band back in August.<\/p>\n

Matheson also claims Cradle of Filth has been using sigils she created but she never authorized their use, nor has she received any compensation. Baxter also alleges that she was not compensated for her work in the aforementioned music videos, which is particularly wild since she\u2019s practically the whole damn video in \u201cTo Live Deliciously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other complaints include things like band members not being able to see the band\u2019s accoutning and licensing agreements when it comes to merch, sound recordings, meet and greets, or their publishing agreement with Peer Music. There\u2019s also a bit in the lawsuit about a broken microphone and missing in-ear monitors.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the plaintiffs want Cradle of Filth to be held responsible for allegedly misappropriating things like their likeness, resulting in the band having to stop selling any offending merch and destroy any remaining stock. They want Dani Filth to replace any broken or missing audio equipment. They also want compensatory and punitive damages for financial losses and emotional distress, and for the defendants to cover all legal fees.<\/p>\n

Oh and they want all of this to go to trial before a jury of their peers. So needless to say, they\u2019re going to try to drag it all out of Dani, the band, and anyone else involved in the alleged misconduct.<\/p>\n

No one among the defendants have responded to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just when you thought the ugly split that happened between Cradle of Filth and former keyboardist and vocalist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-317930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}