Johnny Depp has claimed he was completely unaware his former managers were using his name to take out $40 million in loans.
The fight between the Pirates of the Caribbean actor and Joel and Robert Mandel and their The Management Group (TMG) company has been ongoing since January (17), with Depp suing TMG for $25 million in damages, alleging their fraud, negligence, and mishandling of his finances caused him to run up millions of dollars’ worth of debt.
His ex-advisers then hit back with their own lawsuit, blaming Depp’s penchant for a lavish lifestyle for his own money woes.
However, new legal documents in the case, obtained by TMZ.com, Depp claims that TMG first started taking out the loans in 2006, the largest of which was $22 million from City National Bank, and says he had no idea they were obtaining the loans, or using his properties as collateral.
Michael Kump, attorney for TMG, hit back at Depp’s allegations, telling TMZ: “Johnny Depp’s outrageously false claim that he didn’t know about $40 million in loans is beyond preposterous. Depp and his sister knew about each and every loan; Depp signed every document and spent all the loan proceeds.”
The new documents also detail Depp’s claims that TMG were reckless with his money, with an example given of the time the company forgot to cancel the lease on his mother’s hospice home – costing him $350,000.
Depp also claims that when one of his neighbors launched a property dispute with him, TMG paid the neighbor $3,000 per month, beginning in April 2007 and resulting in a total payment of $320,000. The actor claims TMG never investigated the alleged dispute themselves, and just kept paying it.
He also alleges that he only found out about the financial outlay in 2015, when TMG told him that he would have to sell a massive chunk of his French property in order to “remain solvent”.
