Usher has filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court seeking a default judgment against attorney Alcide Honoré.
The Grammy-winning artist alleges that Honoré failed to return $700,000 of a $1.7 million wire transfer originally intended for the development of an upscale restaurant and lounge in Atlanta’s Buckhead district.
The filing, submitted on November 9, 2026, marks an escalation in a dispute that began after the R&B singer invested in a project at 3102 Piedmont Road. According to reporting by Complex, the legal battle centers on whether the funds wired to the Honoré Law LLC Trust on January 8, 2025, were managed according to the agreed-upon terms for the Homage ATL development.
- Recovery Target: The singer is seeking the return of $700,000, plus legal fees, from the initial $1.7 million capital injection.
- Documented Outflows: Court records indicate that $400,000 of the trust funds were wired to the attorney’s brother, Armond Honoré, on June 9, 2025.
- Procedural Status: Usher’s legal team has requested that the court strike the defendant’s answer and dismiss his counterclaims with prejudice due to alleged non-compliance with a September 28, 2026, discovery order.
The core of the dispute involves the movement of capital through the Honoré Law LLC Trust. While Honoré has denied receiving certain deposits, legal representatives for Usher characterized this defense as “a bald-faced lie” in court documents. The singer’s filing references internal evidence, including a text message from Honoré stating, “Over 1M I’m calculating exact numbers,” which suggests an acknowledgment of the funds.
Further records submitted to the court show that the trust account facilitated several transactions, including payments to a title company and an international wire to Bank Leumi in Israel. The plaintiff claims that Honoré has been “evasive and incomplete” regarding the accounting of these expenditures, specifically citing the failure to provide documentation required by the court order issued on September 28.
| Transaction Detail | Date | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Wire to Trust | January 8, 2025 | $1,700,000 |
| Partial Repayment | August 2025 | $1,000,000 |
| Transfer to Armond Honoré | June 9, 2025 | $400,000 |
The litigation, which officially commenced on November 14, 2025, involves multiple defendants, including songwriter Bryan-Michael Cox, Keith Thomas, and Charles Hughes. Cox has publicly distanced himself from the financial dispute, describing his role as a “passive minority shareholder” and maintaining that his long-term friendship with the performer remains intact.
Honoré’s defense has maintained that the funds were handled appropriately, providing a wire confirmation as evidence. However, Usher’s counsel argues that the defendant is “manifestly playing games to prolong and obstruct the advancement of the case.” The motion for default judgment serves as a procedural maneuver to bypass ongoing delays, aiming to secure a ruling on liability before proceeding to the determination of total damages.
The court has yet to rule on the motion to strike the defendant’s answer. If granted, the judgment would remove the current counterclaims from the record, effectively narrowing the scope of the trial to the calculation of the outstanding balance and associated legal costs.
“Honoré is ‘manifestly playing games to prolong and obstruct the advancement of the case,'” Usher’s lawyers stated in the November 9 filing.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
