Britney Spears felt trapped; her business manager benefited
In early 2008, a small-time Tennessee company with bigtime aspirations made a loan to Britney Spears’ father, who for years had struggled financially.
Less than a month later — after consulting with the owner of the company, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group — James P. Spears, known as Jamie, had his daughter placed into a conservatorship, a legal arrangement typically reserved for people unable to care for themselves or work. He would wield vast power over her life and finances.
Jamie Spears soon sent his daughter on a 97-show international tour. And he hired Tri Star, to whom he still owed at least $40,000, to manage her business.
Over the ensuing decade, that assignment would generate millions of dollars for Tri Star and help transform it and its owner, Louise Taylor, into one of the premier managers in entertainment, with clients including the Kardashians.
Today, Taylor faces questions, from Britney Spears’ lawyers and others, about how much money she made as the pop star’s business manager and whether she improperly enriched herself.
The conservatorship, which a California judge ended last month, was intended to protect Britney Spears from financial exploitation.
But the pop star has said she felt at times that she was coerced to work. The more she did, the more money she generated, and the more flowed to the lawyers, managers, agents and other gatekeepers who surrounded her — thanks in part to a variety of unusual financial arrangements.
Near the center of it all was Taylor, according to a New York Times investigation based on court filings, financial records, company documents and interviews with more than 70 people familiar with the conservatorship, Taylor or her businesses.
In the United States, there are an estimated 1.3 million conservatorships, also known as guardianships. Conservators are granted broad powers over a vulnerable person’s life and are required to act in their best interest.
Under California judicial rules, “the conservator must avoid any personal, business or professional interest or relationship that is or reasonably could be perceived as being self-serving or adverse to the best interest of the conservatee.”
Britney Spears’ case highlights how that doesn’t always happen and comes amid growing calls to reform a system that can victimize rather than protect.
“A conservatorship should be a last resort,” her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, told a court in August. It should not be “a tool for the enrichment of third parties.”
A boat named perfect
Taylor grew up in upstate New York. In her early 20s, she got a job as a bookkeeper in Rochester, N.Y. Rob Taylor worked as a draftsman in the same building. The pair met at a blood drive and got married in 1989 on their 21-foot boat named Perfect.
The couple moved to Florida the next year. Louise Taylor joined a management firm that represented entertainers. In 1993, she started Tri Star Accounting Group to serve similar clients.
Some of her early customers were amateur athletes who went pro. In 2000, Louise Taylor sold the business to the accounting firm Gilman Ciocia.
Gilman executives soon suspected that Louise Taylor was hiding money owed to the company, according to Michael Ryan, a top executive at the time, and another person familiar with what happened. Gilman’s lawyers searched her files and she ultimately agreed to pay the money in question.
There was no lawsuit or official record of the accusations. The two companies agreed to separate in July 2001. Louise Taylor could start anew.
‘It reeks of conflict’
By late 2001, the Taylors had arrived in Brentwood, Tenn. Rob Taylor started a chapter of Calvary Chapel, an independent network of churches. He was the pastor; she was the “ladies ministry leader” and joined the board.
Louise Taylor also incorporated Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, and in 2002, co-founded Stonebridge.
Stonebridge was tiny. It had only a few employees and, until 2006, managed less than $10 million. Before long, though, the upstart firm would land one of the world’s biggest celebrities: Britney Spears.
The pop star’s younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, who in 2005 starred in a Nickelodeon series, “Zoey 101,” also became a Tri Star client, as did her father.
Britney Spears began publicly struggling. In 2006, she filed for divorce from her children’s father and eventually lost custody of her sons. In January 2008, she was twice hospitalized on involuntary psychiatric holds.
Her father — who had filed for bankruptcy, struggled with alcoholism and faced accusations of physical and verbal abuse — had largely been absent from his daughter’s life. Now he reentered.
Around the time his daughter was hospitalized, Jamie Spears received a loan of at least $40,000 from Tri Star.
On Feb. 1, after discussing the matter with Louise Taylor, Jamie Spears petitioned a California court for conservatorship powers, court records show.
His lawyers argued that Britney Spears was unable to care for herself and was vulnerable to exploitation. The judge, Reva Goetz, approved the request.
Britney Spears initially got an allowance of $1,500 a week. Jamie Spears would collect an estimated $6 million over the course of the conservatorship.
The existence of the Tri Star loan, which hasn’t previously been reported, is troubling, said Anthony Palmieri, the incoming president of the National Guardianship Association, which represents conservators.
“It makes me wonder where the allegiance lies,” said Palmieri, who is also the chief guardianship investigator for the county clerk in Palm Beach County, Florida. He added, “It reeks of conflict of interest.”
The circus
Under California law, conservatorships are reserved for people who cannot feed, clothe or shelter themselves.
Only months after arguing that his daughter was incapacitated, Jamie Spears committed her to an eight-month tour named “Circus.” Tri Star was hired to serve as the tour’s business manager. The tour grossed an estimated $130 million.
By December 2009, Tri Star was finalizing a contract to become the manager not just for the tour but also for Britney Spears’ estate.
Tri Star would receive 5% of Britney Spears’ “adjusted gross entertainment revenue,” according to Charles Harder, a lawyer for Louise Taylor, who declined to explain what that meant.
Around that time, Stonebridge began providing the conservatorship with financial advice regarding three accounts held at another firm.
Louise Taylor at the time owned half of Stonebridge, according to securities filings obtained via a public-records request.
The question is whether Stonebridge was selected because it was best suited to serve Britney Spears or because Louise Taylor had a stake in the company, said Michael Ueltzen, a forensic accountant and certified fraud examiner.
Louise Taylor sold her stake in Stonebridge in 2013. Terms weren’t disclosed.
The deal included a provision in which Louise Taylor would refer clients to Stonebridge, though she could also point them to other investment advisers, Harder said.
As of 2016, Tri Star and Stonebridge shared clients like country music stars Martina Mcbride, Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard.
In April 2020, Stonebridge entered into a paid consulting agreement with Jamie Spears in his capacity as conservator.
Britney Spears’ lawyer at the time, Samuel Ingham, had earlier expressed concerns about ties between Tri Star and Stonebridge, according to a court filing. In response, Geraldine Wyle, a lawyer for Jamie Spears, wrote that Stonebridge was “independent from” and “not affiliated with” Tri Star.
The filing didn’t mention that Louise Taylor co-founded and previously owned half of Stonebridge.
$8.08 for cookies
Two former senior Tri Star executives said the firm’s finances were kept under such tight wraps that they lacked access to basic information like the company’s balance sheets and income statements.
One of the most secretive accounts at Tri Star belonged to Britney Spears. Every year, bookkeepers at Tri Star conducted a lengthy, court-mandated accounting of her estate.
The resulting documents were both extremely specific and extremely vague. They listed some of the performer’s expenses in minute detail: $4.98 at Walmart, $8.08 at a Mrs. Fields cookie shop.
Yet the conservatorship has acknowledged it wasn’t providing a complete description of all of the estate’s transactions.
The public versions of the court documents, which are heavily redacted, do not show how much money Tri Star received from the estate.
Baptized in the river
Jamie Spears and the Taylors are close. In 2017, Rob Taylor baptized Jamie Spears and Louise Taylor in the Jordan River in Israel.
Jamie Spears at times gave 10% of his conservatorship income to the Taylors’ Calvary Chapel Brentwood, according to a 2010 financial document.
It was not the only money that originated with Britney Spears that went to religious causes linked to the Taylors.
Before the conservatorship began, Britney Spears created the Britney Spears Foundation.
Two years into the conservatorship, the foundation was shut down. Tax records show that one of its final payouts was $42,000 to Mercy Ministries, a Tennessee-based Christian group that works with young women with depression, unplanned pregnancies and other issues.
The Taylors have donated money to Mercy, and Mercy has donated to Calvary.
Nina Biggar, the former director of the Spears foundation, said she was surprised to learn of its contribution to Mercy. She said Britney Spears had wanted the foundation to stay away from religious causes.
“I would not have advised they receive funding,” she said.
Since the conservatorship began, Britney Spears had gone on two international tours, released four albums and been a judge on the reality show “The X Factor.”
In 2016, in the midst of a blockbuster four-year residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Britney Spears told a court-appointed investigator that she wanted the conservatorship to end. “She is ‘sick of being taken advantage of,’” the investigator wrote.
In 2019, the conservatorship lurched into crisis. In January, Britney Spears canceled a second planned Las Vegas residency, this one at Park MGM, and announced an “indefinite work hiatus.” She then entered a mental health treatment facility in what she said was an involuntary confinement.
The cancellation was costly for Tri Star, which stood to collect 5% of the revenue.
Court documents show Louise Taylor then asked Jamie Spears to change the structure of Tri Star’s compensation so that the firm would automatically receive at least $500,000 a year. He approved.
Britney Spears’ confinement turbocharged the “Free Britney” movement. The vocal group of fans accused Louise Taylor of exploiting the singer.
In June 2019, the law firm Sidley Austin sent a cease-anddesist letter on Louise Taylor’s behalf to a “Free Britney” supporter whose website she claimed was defamatory. The law firm billed Britney Spears’ estate $350,000.
Ingham called for an independent review of all legal fees billed to the estate.
Britney Spears’ estate also paid for Black Box Security, which monitored her phone and secretly recorded her in her bedroom, according to Alex Vlasov, a former Black Box employee.
Harder said it was appropriate to bill for the legal and security services because Louise Taylor incurred them only as a result of her work for the estate.
‘LOVE’ in diamonds
In November 2020, Tri Star stepped down as the estate’s business manager amid growing calls to investigate the firm. Harder said Tri Star resigned after its staff received death threats.
The Times contacted roughly 200 people who worked at Tri Star over the past decade.
Harder sent eight cease-anddesist letters to the Times. Lan Vu, one of Harder’s colleagues, emailed former Tri Star employees, warning of legal repercussions if they spoke with the Times. Many employees told the Times they wouldn’t talk because they were scared of being sued.
On a recent Sunday morning, Louise Taylor arrived for service at the newly remodeled Calvary Chapel Brentwood.
A Christian rock band preceded Rob Taylor’s sermon. Louise Taylor swayed to the music. She held her left hand aloft, displaying a ring with “LOVE” spelled in tiny diamonds.
About three weeks later, the California judge ended the conservatorship. Rosengart is still trying to determine how much money Tri Star made through Britney Spears.
“I’m embarrassed for the State of California for permitting my father to have me work as hard as he worked me all those years and never seeing a dime,” Britney Spears wrote in a recent Instagram post that was later deleted. “I’m embarrassed for all of them and I’m sad for them because I know my value and worth now.”