Following the Money Pre CONservatorship : A Research Thread

[RebellionSparkles]

16 minutes ago, RebellionSparkles said:

An ongoing theory of mine is that Britney’s money she made as a minor was held in a trust in Florida, which meant her parents (custodians) would have been in charge of that money until she turned 25. So I think Britney’s family was cut off for only about 1 year before they put her in a conservatorship

The money she made before she was 18 would have mostly been from 1999 (BOMT). That Forbes article (link below) says in 1999 she made $15M. That’s $6M-$8M take home pay after taxes and management fees.

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/0320/6507162a.html?sh=7df618a11391#:~:text=she sold 11 million copies of her debut album in the U.S.%2C more than any other individual artist. Her 1999 earnings%3A %2415 million.

[Steel Magnolia]

3 hours ago, RebellionSparkles said:

Pre-CONservatorship timeline of Britney's business managers (that handled the finances)

(1) Bert Padell

Padell, Nadell, Fine & Weinberger, LLP

59 Maiden Lane, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10038-4647

(about August 1997 to March 2003)

 

(2) Stacy Smith

Stacy Smith & Associates P.C.

1503 Colley Ave., Norfolk, VA 23517

(April 2003 to October 2004)

 

(3) Todd Gelfand

Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, LLP

1880 Century Park East, Suite 1600, Los Angeles, CA 90067

(October 2004 to May 2006)

 

( 4) Richard Feldstein

Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein, LLP (previously named RHF Management)

10100 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 1300, Los Angeles, CA 90067

(May 2006 to August 2007)

 

(5) Howard Grossman

Goldman, Lichtenberg, Wasserman & Grossman, Inc.

10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1725, Los Angeles, CA 90024

(August 2007 to February 2008)

 

(6) Selwyn Gerber

Gerber & Co.

1880 Century Park East, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90067

(March 2008 to sometime 2008 or 2009)

I wouldn't trust Team CON's assessment of those dates.

I've gone through the earlier documents and entered key dates into the Chronological Timeline.

Some of the business managers appear to overlap with each other...And responsibility for Britney's LLC's appear to have been spread out between them.

[JordanMiller is Fggt]

Lou's employee leaked this audio way back in 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steel Magnolia]

To me, the most important paragraph in the original complaint was this:

"Upon information and belief, SPEARS and BTI concealed from WEG a series of negotiations and agreements for otherwise commissionable Gross Receipts payable to WEG, thus diverting those commissions to SPEARS directly or indirectly, or to corporate entities without the knowledge, consent, or agreement of WEG, both before and after the termination Agreement."

[RebellionSparkles]

11 minutes ago, Steel Magnolia said:

I wouldn't trust Team CON's assessment of those dates.

I've gone through the earlier documents and entered key dates into the Chronological Timeline.

Some of the business managers appear to overlap with each other...And responsibility for Britney's LLC's appear to have been spread out between them.

Great point!!! I’ll go back and add your dates as well

[RebellionSparkles]

9 minutes ago, Steel Magnolia said:

To me, the most important paragraph in the original complaint was this:

"Upon information and belief, SPEARS and BTI concealed from WEG a series of negotiations and agreements for otherwise commissionable Gross Receipts payable to WEG, thus diverting those commissions to SPEARS directly or indirectly, or to corporate entities without the knowledge, consent, or agreement of WEG, both before and after the termination Agreement."

Agree and this turned out to be true. The question is was it just uncle Regi or were there even larger sums that we don’t know about. And did they properly account for these “missing corporations” to the Cali probate court during the CON?

[RebellionSparkles]

27 minutes ago, Steel Magnolia said:

To me, the most important paragraph in the original complaint was this:

"Upon information and belief, SPEARS and BTI concealed from WEG a series of negotiations and agreements for otherwise commissionable Gross Receipts payable to WEG, thus diverting those commissions to SPEARS directly or indirectly, or to corporate entities without the knowledge, consent, or agreement of WEG, both before and after the termination Agreement."

Added this to the summary post.

[Steel Magnolia]

16 minutes ago, RebellionSparkles said:

Agree and this turned out to be true. The question is was it just uncle Regi or were there even larger sums that we don’t know about. And did they properly account for these “missing corporations” to the Cali probate court during the CON?

Do we even know that it was Uncle Reggie who was the culprit?

That's what our "top cop" from 2003 to 2009, Bryan Spears, claimed in this interview (starts at 14:27)...But is Bryan a reliable narrator?

Was that audit by Ernst & Young provided to Lou M. Taylor when she did the accounting in 2008?

 

[blackingouthenegativity]

1 hour ago, RebellionSparkles said:

An ongoing theory of mine is that Britney’s money she made as a minor was held in a trust in Florida, which meant her parents (custodians) would have been in charge of that money until she turned 25. So I think Britney’s family was cut off for only about 1 year before they put her in a conservatorship

Why until 25? Is that typical of trusts? 

[RebellionSparkles]

49 minutes ago, blackingouthenegativity said:

Why until 25? Is that typical of trusts? 

The age of majority is typically 18-21, but Florida is one of a handful of states that allows the custodian to hold the money until the account owner is 25 years old.

[RebellionSparkles]

1 hour ago, Steel Magnolia said:

Do we even know that it was Uncle Reggie who was the culprit?

That's what our "top cop" from 2003 to 2009, Bryan Spears, claimed in this interview (starts at 14:27)...But is Bryan a reliable narrator?

Was that audit by Ernst & Young provided to Lou M. Taylor when she did the accounting in 2008?

 

Uncle Regi is mentioned as having control of some of Britney’s money in both the WEG lawsuit (Florida court) and The CONservatorship case (California court). So it’s not just Bryan who said it.

I think we have to reluctantly believe this story unless there is proof to the contrary.

but it’s worth noting that no paperwork was produced in WEG to confirm the legitimacy of the claim.

[Steel Magnolia]

4 minutes ago, RebellionSparkles said:

Uncle Regi is mentioned as having control of some of Britney’s money in both the WEG lawsuit (Florida court) and The CONservatorship case (California court). So it’s not just Bryan who said it.

I think we have to reluctantly believe this story unless there is proof to the contrary.

but it’s worth noting that no paperwork was produced in WEG to confirm the legitimacy of the claim.

Oh, Reggie absolutely had control over the Louisiana assets at the very least...There's a line by line breakdown in the CON docs from around March 2008.

But stealing money? 

This is Lynne's sister's husband we're talking about...The same sister that died of cancer in 2007 and sent Britney into a tailspin. I believe Sandra and Reg were probably more of a family to Britney than her own parents were.

I saw no mention of Reg stealing money in the WEG docs...Only Bryan is making that claim (and only by not disputing the words of the interviewer.)

I think it's just as likely that Bryan stole the money as it is Reggie...There's no proof either way, and just like Lynne Spears, her son has reason to lie about it.

[blackingouthenegativity]

55 minutes ago, RebellionSparkles said:

The age of majority is typically 18-21, but Florida is one of a handful of states that allows the custodian to hold the money until the account owner is 25 years old.

Very interesting. If true, then this shows the decade proceeding the Con, they were already figuring out how they could use the law to control Britney's money for as long as possible. 

[Ghoulia]

17 minutes ago, Steel Magnolia said:

Oh, Reggie absolutely had control over the Louisiana assets at the very least...There's a line by line breakdown in the CON docs from around March 2008.

But stealing money? 

This is Lynne's sister's husband we're talking about...The same sister that died of cancer in 2007 and sent Britney into a tailspin. I believe Sandra and Reg were probably more of a family to Britney than her own parents were.

I saw no mention of Reg stealing money in the WEG docs...Only Bryan is making that claim (and only by not disputing the words of the interviewer.)

I think it's just as likely that Bryan stole the money as it is Reggie...There's no proof either way, and just like Lynne Spears, her son has reason to lie about it.

That's what @lambyspoet said! 

[RebellionSparkles]

22 minutes ago, Steel Magnolia said:

Oh, Reggie absolutely had control over the Louisiana assets at the very least...There's a line by line breakdown in the CON docs from around March 2008.

But stealing money? 

This is Lynne's sister's husband we're talking about...The same sister that died of cancer in 2007 and sent Britney into a tailspin. I believe Sandra and Reg were probably more of a family to Britney than her own parents were.

I saw no mention of Reg stealing money in the WEG docs...Only Bryan is making that claim (and only by not disputing the words of the interviewer.)

I think it's just as likely that Bryan stole the money as it is Reggie...There's no proof either way, and just like Lynne Spears, her son has reason to lie about it.

Absolutely no way that Jamie and/or Lynne and the whole family wasn’t stealing from this Regi account. This must have been the funnel to the Louisiana clan. Regi’s is just the name on the account.

but how much? Is this the only leak? If this winds up being the core source of the missing wealth then it must be from gambling. It’s HARD to spend the amount of money Britney was making.

[RebellionSparkles]

3 minutes ago, Ghoulia said:

That's what @lambyspoet said! 

Do we know when Andrew Wallet entered?

Bridgmore always seemed like Jamie’s money pot.

The total land purchased in Bridgmore cost somewhere around ~$7M…it seems like there is ~$60M missing.

Also, Britney did technically own Bridgmore…but Reggie had a power of attorney over the assets. I’m not sure how that makes sense and the Cali court agreed that this was sus and brought it up multiple times when the CON started. I’ll have to look through those old docs to see how it was eventually settled.

[RebellionSparkles]

17 minutes ago, Ghoulia said:

That's what @lambyspoet said! 

Andrew Wallet’s liability company??

Do we know the name of it or how to find it?

[Steel Magnolia]

Bryan Spears states in the YouTube video posted further up in the thread that he was the "top cop" of Britney's finances between 2003 and 2009.

He says that when he entered the picture in 2003 he fired "everyone but the manager" following an audit by Ernst & Young.

He said that prior to him firing everyone, the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing...So the Spears family as a unit assigned him the role of "top cop."

So...

It wasn't until 2003/2004 that WEG started to miss payments from Britney's various LLC's (none of which Reg Covington had Power of Attorney over, unless they're listed in the accounting docs from the CON around March 2008).

Is that date correct?

Walking backwards from 2009 to 2003...Shouldn't Bryan, as "top cop" of her finances, been aware of exactly who was taking care of what?

 

[Steel Magnolia]

4 minutes ago, RebellionSparkles said:

Andrew Wallet’s liability company??

Do we know the name of it or how to find it?

This is the problem.

When the CON started, Jamie and Wallet began registering LLC's left and right...And they used those in place of Britney's original LLC's.

I think we're going to find multiple Britney Touring, Inc.'s created prior to the CON as well...But that's just a hunch.

[RebellionSparkles]

A liability company actually would complete part of the puzzle. I assume this is referencing an off balance sheet financing  strategy. This can be totally legal, but often it is not…the devil is in the details.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/071513/understanding-offbalance-sheet-financing.asp