Cage Accused Of Squandering His Fortune
By WENNWednesday, November 18, 2009
NICOLAS CAGE’s former business manager has filed a countersuit against the actor, accusing him of squandering his fortune.
Cage filed suit against Samuel Levin last month (Oct09), alleging he had sent the star “down a path of financial ruin”, by misleading him and overcharging for his services.
The accusations stem from a $6.26 million (?4.2 million) tax lien Cage has been handed by America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS), alleging he failed to pay income tax on wages dating back to 2007.
Cage is also facing other claims of unpaid tax related to his earnings between 2002 and 2004, while he was accused of defaulting on a $2 million (?1.3 million) loan last month (Oct09).
But Levin claims Cage is to blame for his financial woes, detailing the star’s extravagant spending habits in a countersuit, obtained by TMZ.com.
Referring to the actor by his birth name - Nicolas Coppola - the suit reads, “(By the time Levin was hired in 2001) Coppola had already squandered tens of millions of dollars… and owed millions of dollars in… income taxes, with no funds available to pay the tax debt.”
He claims in 2007 alone Cage spent $33 million (GBP20 million) on three new homes and bought 22 new cars, including nine Rolls Royces.
Levin alleges his client needed to earn $30 million (GBP18.75 million) per year to maintain his lifestyle, which included spending “huge sums taking his sizable entourage on costly vacations and enormous, Gatsby-scale parties at his residences.”
The lawsuit adds, “The pinnacle of (Cage’s) spending spree came with his Quixotic acquisitions of Midford Castle in England and Schloss Neidstein Castle in Bavaria.”
Cage has since been forced to offload both properties, and list his New Orleans, Louisiana home for sale.
