After an extremely quiet divorce from his now ex-wife, Solé, Ginuwine is one step away from filing for bankruptcy.
According to the R&B crooner’s lawyer, Bruce Beckner, the singer, whose real name is Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, is broke and has accrued debts that he’s currently unable to pay, the New York Daily News reports.
“Mr. Lumpkin is very close to declaring bankruptcy. He owes my firm a ton of money and a bunch of other people a ton of money,” Buckner said. “He owes Uncle Sam 300-odd thousand dollars in back income taxes.”
The singer’s financial woes were revealed during a pre-trial hearing against former manager and executive producer of his 1996 album, The Bachelor, Robert Reives. The producer is claiming that he’s owed royalties from a five-album, $1.25 million deal that Ginuwine signed with Sony.
During Monday’s bench trial in Manhattan Federal Court before Judge Ronnie Abrams, Ginuwine said on the stand that he and Reives had a mutual parting of ways. “I trusted him. I thought he had my best interests at heart, and judging by the contract, he didn’t,” Ginuwine said.
Reives countered he secured the deal with Sony that got Ginuwine his big break, but never got any money from his management duties.
“I loved the guy,” Reives said, tearing up on the stand.
The R&B singer is arguing that Reives’s claim falls outside of the statute of limitations and isn’t owed the money that he’s seeking.
