Fresh off Rihanna's massive settlement from her former accountant Peter Gounis and his firm Berdon LLP, we have another story of a poor celebrity led wrong by his trust financial advisor. Colin buried it in ANR but here you go:
McKnight has filed a lawsuit against Vernon Brown and Company, claiming Brown ruined his life by not paying ANY of Brian's taxes for close to a decade … resulting not only in more than a million bucks in back taxes, but more than $500K in penalties and interest.
Here's how bad McKnight says it got … In the lawsuit he claims Brown knew he screwed up and secretly contacted Congressman Henry Waxman and gave him a phony sob story that got Waxman to contact the IRS and get McKnight back on an installment plan.
First, if your accountant can't reach the IRS and has to go straight to Capitol Hill, you know you have a problem.
However, one has to wonder how exactly a millionaire manages to dodge paying taxes for a full decade without having any idea taxes are owed. The IRS isn't exactly subtle when they feel they've been stiffed, surely they, I dunno, sent a letter or something? Was the mailman in on it too, bro?
Does no one recall the seedy tale of one Kenneth Starr? Not the hater who tried to ruin Bill Clinton's life, the celebrity financial adviser and stripper connoisseur who was eventually picked up for running a massive $30 million fraud on his wealthy clients.
Before another multi-millionaire finds themselves in this situation (unless it's Justin Bieber, I hope that guy ends up so destitute he's doing sexual favors for truckers behind a dumpster in Toronto), remember you're never too busy or famous or special to get ripped off. If you trust a single individual or firm with your entire well-being, then maybe you deserve to find what remains of your assets frozen by the IRS.
I mean 10 years, really? Really?! Come on, man.
