MOSCOW, February 1 - RAPSI. A U.S. court has frozen $1 million on the bank account of a local company that promised to secure Lady Gaga's appearance and performance at the MUZ-TV awards ceremony, according to documents made available to the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

According to the documents, the funds were frozen as security in a lawsuit lodged on January 26 against the NWE Talent Agency & Management Company by the Russian TV Service ZAO.

The statement of claim states that the channel first contacted George Sergeev in the United States who introduced the channel's representative to Ryan Burke, an agent at the NWE Talent Agency & Management Company. Burke negotiated the performance and acts as a defendant.

The plaintiff alleges that they agreed Lady Gaga would perform at the awards ceremony in June 2012 and paid the required deposit. However, the U.S. party failed to secure her appearance on the required day. Nevertheless it did not respond to the request to refund the deposit.

The channel appealed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to recover the paid deposit and damages. The documents say the deposit totaled $1.5 million.

The plaintiff stated that the U.S. party has already withdrawn $450,000 from the account as broker fees. The channel sought to freeze the remaining funds and the court issued a freezing order.