Kuwait Times

Johnny Depp is suing his former business managers

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The 53-year-old actor filed a 52-page lawsuit in Los Angeles on Friday, in which he accused The Mandel Co, The Management Group, Joel L Mandel, Robert Mandel, First American Title Insurance Co and 15 other unnamed defendants of "gross misconduct" that resulted in him losing "tens of millions of dollars." Johnny - who is seeking a jury trial - claims self-dealing by TMG has forced him to sell off assets to pay for the losses he has sustained. The suit accuses TMZ of paying itself more than $28 million in contingenc­y fees without a written agreement; failing to file or pay his taxes on time, resulting in more than $5.6 million in fees and penalties on his federal returns, and "loaning" nearly $10 million to third parties without the actor's authorizat­ion. His lawyer, Matthew Kanny, said in the documents: "As a result of years of gross mismanagem­ent and at times, outright fraud, 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. "TMG's gross mismanagem­ent and fraud remained undetected as TMG borrowed millions of dollars to survive from movie-to-movie. "It was only recently, when Depp terminated TMG and hired new business management and accounting services, when Depp learned the gravity of his financial losses and some, but surely not all, of the underlying facts." The suit contains 11 complaints, including profession­al negligence, fraud, negligent misreprese­ntation and unjust enrichment. Attorney Michael Kump said: "For 30 years, Joel and Rob Mandel, and their company The Management Group, have been trusted business managers to some of the most successful individual­s and companies in the entertainm­ent business.

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