Fact #169870
When:
Short story:
Billy Joel files a $90m damages suit in New York City against his manager, Frank Weber, for fraud.
Full article:
After splitting acrimoniously with his first manager, Artie Ripp, during the 1970s, Billy Joel had decided to keep his business affairs in the family. Those being the days before Uptown Girl Christie Brinkley, Joel gave the job to his then-wife Elizabeth. That didn’t work out either and, when they divorced in 1982, Joel presumably realised that the bad feeling between them necessitated another change of manager.
After racking his brains for some while, Joel came up with a totally brilliant solution. He would replace his estranged former wife with Frank Weber, a scrupulously impartial former real estate dealer who could best be described as Elizabeth’s brother. (That ‘totally brilliant’ bit back there was a red herring.)
Mr Weber, who would obviously have felt no bitterness whatsoever towards the man who had just divorced his sister, remained gainfully in Mr Joel’s employ for a decade, at which point the former pugilist finally noticed the absence of about ten million dollars from his petty cash box, but apparently not those two vital sandwiches from his picnic. There was also the small matter of $800,000 worth of interest free loans which had vanished from Mr Joel’s account into Mr Weber’s and never quite found their way back again.
On 25 September, 1989, Billy Joel filed a $90m damages suit in New York against Weber for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, avowing that Weber had used him effectively as a “personal bank”. Weber delivered the sucker punch, however, by having himself declared bankrupt, thus making it impossible for Joel to fully recoup his disastrous losses.
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After racking his brains for some while, Joel came up with a totally brilliant solution. He would replace his estranged former wife with Frank Weber, a scrupulously impartial former real estate dealer who could best be described as Elizabeth’s brother. (That ‘totally brilliant’ bit back there was a red herring.)
Mr Weber, who would obviously have felt no bitterness whatsoever towards the man who had just divorced his sister, remained gainfully in Mr Joel’s employ for a decade, at which point the former pugilist finally noticed the absence of about ten million dollars from his petty cash box, but apparently not those two vital sandwiches from his picnic. There was also the small matter of $800,000 worth of interest free loans which had vanished from Mr Joel’s account into Mr Weber’s and never quite found their way back again.
On 25 September, 1989, Billy Joel filed a $90m damages suit in New York against Weber for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, avowing that Weber had used him effectively as a “personal bank”. Weber delivered the sucker punch, however, by having himself declared bankrupt, thus making it impossible for Joel to fully recoup his disastrous losses.