Johnny Depp is in the middle of another legal problem, this time against his own former business managers for alleged fraud.

In the $25 million dollar lawsuit that he filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, he alleged that The Management Group, which has handled his accounting, tax, and business matters between 1999 and 2016, took as much as $28 million in fees from him without his approval and also did not file his taxes properly. Even worse, he alleged that the firm loaned up to $10 million to third party companies behind his back.

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Depp’s lawyer Matthew Kanny said, “Mr. Depp is one of the most sought after and highly paid actors in the world. He is also the victim of the gross misconduct of his business managers — The Management Group and attorneys Joel and Robert Mandel — who collected tens of millions of dollars of contingent fees, purportedly based on an oral contract, all at Mr. Depp’s expense.”

Kanny went on to say that the firm had treated Depp’s income “as their own” and has even sought to foreclose Depp’s home, whose alleged loan to secure it was made through TMG. He revealed that Depp was forced to “dispose significant assets” to pay for the firm’s misconduct.

According to Kanny, Depp terminated the firm and hired new business management and accounting services as soon as he learned about what happened.

The actor is now suing for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence, but The Management Group seemed to be ready to file a countersuit. The defendant’s attorney, Michael Kump, said the firm and its attorneys Joel and Rob Mandel are not the problem but Depp’s “irresponsible and profligate spending.”

Kump went on to allege that the firm had loaned $5 million to Depp to bail him out of a $5 million bank loan in December 2012, but the actor failed to pay it in full by the agreed deadline of January 2014. With $4.2 million still unpaid, the Mandels reportedly decided to start non-judicial foreclosure proceedings against some of the actor’s properties.

According to the attorney, Depp’s lawsuit that was filed against TMG on the eve of the sale of those particular properties was just his last-minute attempt to derail the foreclosure.

“His tactics and lawsuit will fail, and he will be forced to pay back the loan as promised,” Kump said.

Any thoughts on who’s telling the truth here?

TagsJohnny Depp, The Management Group, Joel Mandel, Robert Mandel, celebrity lawsuits