In January, Curtis Jackson, aka 50-Cent, appeared on CNBC proclaimed as a multi-platinum rapper, and also a successful entrepreneur with a range of businesses. Just six months later he is broke, as WSJ reports, [5]he filed for chaper 11 bankruptcy protection today. Court papers (below) show the rapper's assets and debt in the range of $10 to $50 million (after WaPo reported his net worth "at nearly half a billion dollars" in 2007 [6]). The bankruptcy filing comes just days after a jury directed Jackson to pay $5 million to the ex-girlfriend of a rap-rival over a sex-tape.
[7]
As The Wall Street Journal reports, [5]
Curtis James Jackson III, the rapper better known as 50 Cent, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday.
In court papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford, Conn., Mr. Jackson reported assets and debts each in the range of $10 million to $50 million.
The attorney listed on the bankruptcy petition couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday.
The filing comes days after a jury directed Mr. Jackson to pay $5 million to a woman who sued over a sex tape, the Associated Press reported.
50 Cent insists that his rival, rapper Rick Ross, is the culprit, but Lastonia Leviston, 36, says Jackson posted the video in 2009 to taunt Ross because he knew that Ross is the father of her child. She said the fact that it got 4 million viewers made her deeply depressed and suicidal.
To summarize:
Rapper A, worth nine figures, gets sued by a the ex-girlfriend of rapper B, who rapper A used to make fun of for not having as much money as him.
Since then rapper B has gotten a whole lot richer but still not as rich as rapper A who now claims he's broke so he doesn't have to pay rapper B's ex $5 million.
Only in America.
Finally - from 50 Cent's Instagram last night...
Full Bankruptcy filing below...
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One final thought... when does Greece unleash its own sex tape and use that as an excuse to extricate itself from an uncomfortable due payment?
