Could the only child of music legend Elvis Presley actually be just about broke?
According to Lisa Marie Presley’s lawsuit against her one-time business manager, that’s essentially how she’s been left due to his mismanagement of her funds and poor decisions regarding investments.
It takes a lot of mistakes to turn $100,000,000 into almost nothing. The business manager and his firm have denied any wrongdoing and tried to stop the lawsuit from moving forward, but a court allowed it to continue.
Presley, who was the only heir to her father’s generous estate when he died, claims that the business manager she trusted used trickery and a lot of outrageous fees to part her from her money. Those fees included a yearly salary for himself of over $700,000 for managing the trust fund set up for her benefit. Out of the millions she once had, he’s left her with only around $15,000. She also claims that he deliberately hid her financial problems from her while simultaneously reassuring her that everything was fine when she made inquiries.
For his part, the business manager has denied the charges and filed a suit of his own for $800,000. He claims that Presley’s financial woes are her own doing, through outrageous spending and a general refusal to take financial advice that he offered on how to limit her expenses. He also blames her lost fortune on a bad decision she made to sell her shares of Elvis Presley Enterprises. He says she took some cash and a lot of stock in a company related to the TV show “American Idol,” but the stock ended up being virtually worthless over time — losing over $24 million in value in a single week.
Essentially, the business manager claims he is being scapegoated by Presley because she can’t accept responsibility for her losses. She, on the other hand, has emails showing his constant reassurances about her wealth.
A business dispute of this magnitude makes huge headlines, but these are the kinds of things that happen all the time — just for smaller amounts. It’s smart, if you have a business manager, to demand more than just reassurances of your financial stability. A regular accounting — in detail — can save you from significant heartache and a lawsuit over fraud or deceptive practices.
