The communications company scrapped its partnership with the 25-year-old Akon Friday after a video was released that shows him simulating sex onstage with an underage girl during an Apr.12 concert in Trinidad.
According to various accounts, 15-year-old Danah Alleyne thought she had won a dance contest when she was invited to dance with Akon, but soon found out that first prize was a close encounter with the Konvicted rapper.
The Trinidad Express reported that Akon got seven women to come up and dance with him, promising that the best of the bunch would score a grand-prize trip to Africa.
"I got carried away," Alleyne, a pastor's daughter, said in a public apology last month after a local TV station aired the footage. "I started to dance, as well, but I never thought it was going to be like that. I was shocked. My head was hitting the floor."
None of which sat well with Verizon, which will be taking their featured ring tones elsewhere.
Akon is the opening act for Gwen Stefani.
And Verizon is the sponsor of her tour "The Sweet Escape. They severed ties with her as well. Gwen is now without a sponsor because of Akon. I wonder how that sits with her!
Via concreteloop.com, source& Via news.yahoo.com