The piece, titled “The Trouble With Johnny Depp” and written by Stephen Rodrick, details Depp’s lawsuits against The Management Group, run by Depp’s longtime business manager Joel Mandel and his brother Robert, for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. “The suit cites, among other things, that under TMG’s watch Depp’s sister Christi was given $7 million and his assistant, Nathan Holmes, $750,000, without his knowledge, and that he has paid the IRS more than $5.6 million in late fees.” The suit seeks more than $25 million from TMG, accounting for tens of millions it claims TMG illegally took for its commission, plus any additional damages the court sees fit.
Among the article’s highlights:
-The Mandels deny all wrongdoing and are countersuing, alleging, among other things, that Depp has a $2-million-a-month compulsory-spending disorder, offering bons mots like, “Wine is not an investment if you drink it as soon as you buy it.” Depp concocted “malicious and false allegations” against the company, according to TMG’s countersuit, because TMG had filed a private foreclosure notice on one of Depp’s properties;
-Depp’s closest confidant these days is Adam Waldman, a 49-year-old lawyer the actor met less than two years ago. “Waldman seems to have convinced Depp that they are freedom fighters taking on the Hollywood machine rather than scavengers squabbling over the scraps of a fortune squandered.”
-On Donald Trump: At last year’s Glastonbury Festival, Depp, “perhaps drunkenly,” asked, “Can we bring Trump here? . . . When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” Depp now says he “was trying to connect it to Trump saying he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, but it didn’t come out right.”
Waldman hooked up with Depp in October 2016, “having been told by a client that Depp needed help. TMG had just slapped the foreclosure notice on his L.A. homes for failure to make payments on a $5 million loan from the company. TMG had filed it as a nonjudicial foreclosure so there were no public filings. The public at this point had no idea of Depp’s financial situation.”
-Under Waldman’s guidance, Depp filed a lawsuit against the Mandels, claiming that the actor wasn’t given monthly financial statements and “often was presented only a signature page to sign for transactions. The suit further alleged that – in addition to the $7 million given to his sister Christi – TMG had cost Depp $6 million in tacked-on fees by paying his IRS taxes late for 13 years straight.” Depp also accused TMG of taking out $34 million in loans in his name as a result of mismanagement, “with the final straw being a $12.5 million “hard money” loan engineered by his longtime attorney Jake Bloom in 2014, at 10 percent interest.” The loan stipulated “Christi’s, Bloom’s and the Mandels’ fees would be paid before loan repayments and definitely before Depp saw a dime of residuals from his Pirates of the Caribbean series.”
-Depp and Waldman believe his lawsuit “will change Hollywood forever,” says the article. “The suit swings for the fences and claims TMG owes Depp more than $25 million in ill-gotten five-percent commissions because, among other reasons, they claim TMG had acted not only as financial managers but also as lawyers, meaning it needed to enter a new agreement with Depp for each movie deal.” The same charge would be eventually levied against Bloom, who has filed a countersuit, denying all the claims.
At one point, Depp is asked by the reporter what he makes of all the “legal shenanigans.” Says the actor: “I’m just a small part of this. It’s the f*cking Matrix. I didn’t see the movie, and I didn’t understand the script, but here’s what it is.”
-Last summer, TMG filed “a thermo-nuclear” lawsuit” that “described the actor as a spoiled brat with no impulse control” and that “Depp lived an ultra-extravagant lifestyle that often knowingly cost Depp in excess of $2 million a month to maintain, which he simply could not afford.”
photographs of a bruised Heard emerged. She filed for divorce two days later, and received a reported $7 million payment, with both signing nondisclosure agreements.” data-reactid=”44″>-On May 20, 2016, when Depp’s mother died, Depp’s then-wife Amber Heard asked a friend to call 911 to report that the actress was being beaten by Depp. Later, photographs of a bruised Heard emerged. She filed for divorce two days later, and received a reported $7 million payment, with both signing nondisclosure agreements.
On his self-proclaimed lack of involvement in his own business affairs, Depp says,
“If there were things for me to sign that would come in – and there would be occasionally – I would sign them like this,” says Depp, pantomiming signing an imaginary paper with his right hand while his head was swiveled far to the left, staring into the London gloom. “I don’t want to f*cking see what they are because I trust these people.”
Later, he grimaces: “Now I look right at everything I sign.”
Later, Depp says “If you’re knowingly not paying the United States government taxes, somebody is gonna f*cking catch up with you and hand you a bill and you’ll probably go to the pokey.”
Responds TMG’s lawyers:
“In 30 years of business, no current or former client of TMG has raised any issue, other than Johnny Depp, who continues to spread malicious, unfounded lies about the company. TMG will vigorously defend and defeat all of Depp’s fabricated claims.”
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