Music promoter reprimanded

A judge in Newark, N.J., has found a music promoter in contempt for continuing to use the name of a famous oldies group, the Drifters, in defiance of an 8-year-old court order. U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise termed Larry Marshak’s promotion of an offshoot of the Drifters -- the Elsbeary Hobbs Drifters -- “an elaborate shell game.”

In a decision published this week, Debevoise held that Marshak, his relatives and business associates violated a 1999 injunction banning the use of the Drifters name “or any other name that would be confusingly similar to the Drifters.” Former Drifters manager Faye Treadwell, who has fought a decades-long legal battle against Marshak, is seeking profits from concerts Marshak promoted under the Elsbeary Hobbs Drifters name, according to attorney Cindy Salvo.

Marshak, a resident of Queens, N.Y., is a former rock magazine editor who began promoting oldies shows in New York City in the 1970s.