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Johnny Depp Sues Business Managers For $25 Million, Same Day He Finalizes Divorce From Amber Heard

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 00:24 PST, Jan 14, 2017

Johnny Depp settled a bitter divorce dispute with Amber Heard, but it seems he will remain in the courts after he filed a $25 million lawsuit against his business managers the same day.

According to Deadline, the Pirates of the Caribbean star believes that The Management Group swindled him and is alleging fraud and a slew of other claims in his lawsuit. In a complaint, filed by Depp’s attorneys, Manatt, Phelps and Phillips LLC, in a Los Angeles Superior Court, it was revealed that the 52-year-old’s business managers had cost him tens of millions of dollars, using his assets for personal gain and without authority.

“As a result of years of gross mismanagement and sometimes outright fraud, Mr. Depp lost tens of millions of dollars and has been forced to dispose of significant assets to pay for TMG’s self-dealing and gross misconduct. In essence, TMG treated Mr. Depp’s income as their own, available to either TMG or third parties to draw upon as desired.”

The lawsuit pinpointed 11 wrongdoings which included professional negligence, breach of contract and fraud. It alleges that The Management Group failed to pay the Black Mass actor’s taxes on time, which amounted to over $5.6 million in fees and penalties on his federal returns. TMG also reportedly went ahead to loan out close to $10 million to third parties without proper documentation or Depp’s approval.

The lawsuit purported that the company owned by attorneys Robert and Joel Mandel paid themselves more than $28 million in contingency fees in the absence of a written agreement. In addition, the company forgot to terminate the lease on a home that Depp’s mother was living in after she moved. The brothers allegedly also bloated payments on security, spending over $8 million between 2012 and 2015.

A source speaking to the Daily Mail, made it known that The Management Group had been managing the Edward Scissorhands actor’s money for over 16 years and “concealed the true state of Mr. Depp’s finances while driving him deeper and deeper into financial distress.” The source said The Management Group had stripped the 52-year-old star of plenty of money even though he had amassed around $650 million over the course of his career.

The actor, who has been shooting Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, alleged that he only found out about the multiple infringements after he fired TMG and hired new business managers. The Alice in Wonderland actor had noticed violations in March 2016 and suspected something was in the offing when the attorney brothers had told him he was running out of money and advised him to sell his French village.

According to the lawsuit, the brothers were trying to foreclose the property after one of their dealings using Depp’s money went awry. Since learning of his financial troubles, Depp has doubled his asking price for the village. He is now asking for $55.5 million for the French village, a move Alexander Kraft of Sotheby’s International Realty France has deemed “ambitious.”

The Mandel brothers have countered claims that they defrauded the Hollywood star, adding that they take their “Jewishness very seriously.” Joel Mandel was a transaction lawyer and Robert Mandel was a tax lawyer before they both started working for Johnny Depp in 1999. Robert said they had never compromised on their business ethics and blamed Depp’s ostentatious lifestyle for his troubles.

“You don’t spend more money than you have, you don’t take salaries that you haven’t earned. We’re very conservative and were willing to build our business slowly.”

Michael Kump, an attorney representing The Management Group corroborated the allegation, calling the Hollywood’s actor’s suit a “fabrication,” arguing that the company “did everything possible to protect Depp from his irresponsible and profligate spending.”

[Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/AP Images]

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