Reports that rapper 50 Cent has gone broke are likely to be wide of the mark, given that news that “Fiddy’s” alter ego, Curtis Jackson III, filed for bankruptcy just days after a jury ruled that he must pay $5 million to a woman suing over a sex tape that was posted without her permission.
Documents filed in Connecticut Bankruptcy Court showed Jackson’s listed assets and debts to be in the range of $10 million to $50 million.
Jackson’s attorney was not immediately available to comment on the timing of the filing, but the rapper spoke about the decision to E! News on Monday.
“You know when you’re successful and stuff, you become a target,” Jackson said. “I don’t wanna be a bull’s eye. I don’t want anybody to pick me as the guy that they just come to with astronomical claims and go through all that.”
A sale of the rapper’s stake in VitaminWater netted him about $100 million after taxes when Coca-Cola purchased the beverage brand in 2007. In a more recent venture, Jackson closed a $78 million deal at the end of 2014 with FRIGO Revolution Wear to promote men’s underwear.
So filing for bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily mean the Grammy award-winner is out of money, according to Leon Bayer, a bankruptcy attorney at Bayer Wishman & Leotta.
“Chapter 11 is the drug of choice for celebrity debt problems,” he said. “You don’t have to be broke to file for chapter 11, but it could mean you don’t have good cash flow.”
Whether or not that is the case will be made clearer sometime in the 14 days Jackson has to file his debt payment plan or “schedules,” which could reveal intimate financial details.
“When he files schedules it’s going to show all the details of his debts, assets, even whether or not he paid his gardener on time,” Bayer said.
Jackson told E! News that he was simply “reorganizing” his finances. “I’m taking the precautions that any other good businessperson would take in this situation,” he said.
Intentionally or not, Jackson’s bankruptcy will put a convenient roadblock between the $5 million he was ordered to pay and the woman expecting to receive it.
“It tells them they aren’t going to get a cheque anytime soon, so why not sit back down at the negotiating table,” he said.
