Johnny Depp has been involved in an ongoing legal dispute with his former business managers for some time. However, while most of what's been going back and forth between the two sides previously has been just talk, that all just changed. Yesterday, Depp's former business managers, The Management Group, filed an "action for judicial foreclosure" against the actor, in an attempt to force the sale of five homes owned by Depp in order to recoup a loan paid to the actor back in 2012.
According to the court filing, Johnny Depp was on the verge of defaulting on a loan to a bank, and The Management Group, came to his aid, loaning him $5 million so that he could pay off that loan. Depp then did start to pay off part of the loan to TMG, but according to them, $4.4 million is still outstanding, and Depp hasn't paid any of the loan since terminating TMG as his business manager in March of 2016. If a judge grants the foreclosure motion, Depp's five homes in the LA area could be seized and sold off, with the proceeds going to TMG to pay off what is owed them.
Back in January Johnny Depp filed a $25 million lawsuit for fraud against The Management Group, claiming that their mismanagement of his money was the reason for the actor finding himself in such financial straights. TMG has countered that Depp's money problems stem from his own free-spending on an extravagant lifestyle. For the most part, the suit has been limited to harsh words and document dumps up to this point, this is the first major filing that could result in real action being taken.
According to Deadline, judicial foreclosures tend to be handled faster than many other legal proceedings, meaning that a judge could make a ruling on it fairly quickly. If the judge rules against Depp, the properties could be taken within the next year.
The fact that this loan took place doesn't appear to be in dispute, which means that regardless of the validity of Johnny Depp's charges of fraud, he could very well lose these properties in order to pay it back. The five properties are technically owned by trusts run by Depp, but they're all located in the Los Angeles area, and one assumes will more than cover the outstanding debt owed to The Management Group.
The rest of the lawsuit issues, and the countersuit filed by TMG, could still take some time to work through. it could be months before any rulings are made on the core issues.
Johnny Depp co-stars in Murder on the Orient Express which opens Friday.
