Enigma is not a band it is a one man project created by Michael Cretu. Cretu once stated in an interview that "95% of Enigma is a one man band". At the end of 1990 in a virgin press release Michael Cretu stated "Old rules and habits have to be rejected and dismissed so that something new can be created." Thus, he created Enigma. When Cretu released MCMXC a.D. he wished to remain anonymous. In a "Billboard" article Cretu stated "with Enigma i have created a complete piece of music that i wanted to stand alone. There is a sense of mystery in the music that i wanted to leave untouched by the perceptions and preconceived ideas that came with the past history of a producer or a song writer." The above statement shows the reason why Cretu wanted to remain mysterious and why he wanted the people involved with Enigma, including himself, to remain unknown. For the credits on Enigma's first album each of the artist's used an alias as their name. Michael Cretu's alias was Curly M.C., Frank Petersons alias was F. Gregorian, David Fairsten had no alias and Sandra and Louisa Stanly where not credited at all.
This was part of Michael Cretu's plan for the Enigma project, where the mystery was kept through the listener just knowing the music and not knowing about the artists and their personal life. Cretu once stated "The music is the star, not me". Curious journalist wondering about the identity of the artist behind MCMXC a.D. suggested artists like Mike Oldfield, alan Parsons and others. But it wasn't until a lawsuit for supposed plagiarism of the idea of mixing Gregorian chants with hip – hop beats was filed that the true artist, Michael Cretu, was revealed. Cretu won this case and cleared his name.
But, yet another lawsuit was filed agents Cretu and virgin Germany in August of 1991 by the Munich, Germany based Gregorian choir called Kapelle Antiqua, who sued claiming that Cretu had used samples of their recordings without permission in Sadeness pt 1 and Meaculpa. The group sued claiming "Cretu had infringed its right of personality by distorting their recordings sampled in Mea culpa and Sadeness pt 1 album tracks and singles" Kapelle Antiqua demanded a written apology as well as financial compensation. Cretu and Virgin Germany agreed to pay compensation for samples used in MCMXC a.D and settled out of court with polydor and BMG / ariola for an undisclosed sum. Virgin Germany went on to aquire authorisation for the use of the Polydor and BMG / ariola recordings and official apologized to the original artist's. But it is also a fact that there actually was no copyright infringement in this case, since the Kapelle Antiqua recordings where in the public domain. After all these incidents Michael Cretu no longer needed to hide his identity because the public now knew who the creator of Enigma was so, on all the Enigma albums after MCMXC a.D and The Cross of Changes he put real names for the credits.
The case with Kapelle Antiqua was not the end of the legal troubles with Enigma. Kuo Yin – Nan, 80, and his wife Kuo Hsiu – Chu, members of the Ami Aborigine tribe located in eastern Taiwan, filed a copyright infringement suit in the U.S. against "Enigma" and related U.S. and German music companies. They charged Michael Cretu and related companies with unauthorized use of their tribal "Jubilant drinking song" / "song of joy" that they recorded in a capella around 1978 or 1979 for cultural perversion purposes. Upon the settlement of the lawsuit it was stated that the Kuo's would be given full attribution for thair contribution to Return to Innocence, including liniar notes on all future releases featuring their work. It was also stated that the Kue's will receive platinum copies of The Cross of Changes and that further terms of the settlement where confidential.
On June 23, 1999 Virgin Records and Mr. and Mrs Kuo released this statement to the press: "Virgin Records America and Kuo Ying – Nan and Kuo Hsin – Chu are pleased to announce that they have settled all disputes between them. Virgin Records America thanks the Kuo's for the contribution that their arrangement and performance of the vocal chant "Song of Joy" made to the song Return to Innocence."