Shortly once Tupac Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, alleged in a blockbuster lawsuit that trustee Tom Whalley had “embezzled millions” from her late mother’s estate, the music industry veteran slammed the claim as “offensive” and “legally baseless.”
Whalley, who signed Tupac to Interscope and worked closely with the iconic rapper and his mom Afeni Shakur-Davis during their lifetimes, assured the court in a March filing that once it was true he had not yet produced a formal gracious accounting to Sekyiwa following her mom’s death in 2016, an outside firm had already been hired to current one.
The executive who helped produce Tupac’s 2Pacalypse Now, Thug Life, and Me Against the World also admitted that once “substantial assets” originally belonging to the late rapper — counting multiple cars, gold records, clothing and pin ball machines that Afeni inherited as the sole beneficiary of her son’s estate — had “yet to be distributed” to Sekyiwa, the trust granted him “absolute discretion” to withhold and use the items to make cash for the estate. Indeed, many of the items above up in the traveling “Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I’m Free” note now open at L.A. Live, he said.
“Now that the note is up and running,” Whalley told the court, distribution of the estate’s previous tangible personal property would start flowing to Sekyiwa. Despite the assurances, a judge still ordered Whalley to produce a full accounting of the gracious by June 30.
In a filing on Monday, Sekyiwa and her lawyers said the accounting, filed as ordered, “falls woefully short of compliance with the true and accounting requirements of the trust.” They said Whalley only performed figures for “very general categories” of assets, listing jewelry valued at $217,700 deprived of any catalog of the items, for example.
“Either (Whalley) lacks the capacity or the will to properly clarify to petitioners, or else he has something to hide,” Sekyiwa’s lawyers wrote.
Calling the alleged lack of transparency a “hide and regulation strategy,” Sekyiwa and her lawyers asked the court on Monday to forced an “independent” CPA to audit the trust and characterize back with a detailed accounting of all assets. That would concerned Amaru Entertainment, the record label started by Afeni that rules much of Tupac’s music and intellectual property. Amaru is wholly rencelebrated by the trust, but Whalley runs the company as its paid boss.
Sekyiwa and her lawyers say they want to know how much Whalley pays himself ended Amaru – and how much he has received to date. While Whalley does not take a fee for sketching as estate trustee, he allegedly receives a 20 percent commission at Amaru, Sekyiwa’s filings claim. She and her lawyers question whether such a commission is warranted.
“When Afeni was fervent, she got to make the choices. Now the only one sketching to make choices is Mr. Whalley. There’s a specific confirmation in the trust that we cite that says the contest of interest, which is obvious, is waived so long as the compensations that he receives is basically commercially reasonable. This is a different plot from when Afeni was alive and directing things, setting the goals,” Sekyiwa’s lawyer Donald David tells Rolling Stone. “We aren’t even sure what he’s receiving. We have nothing that invents us comfortable that Mr. Whalley has accurately disclosed the compensations he’s receiving or that it’s proper compensation pursuant to the languages of California law and the trust.”
Meanwhile, sources say that when it comes to “Wake Me When I’m Free,” Whalley doesn’t assertion a cut. “It all goes to Amaru,” once source tells Rolling Stone.
In Sekyiwa’s underlying lawsuit, she alleged that Whalley has received $5.5 million over the past five ages from Amaru, a figure she considers “well in excess of what would be reasonably valuable to retain a properly qualified third-party to perform such services.”
A representative for Whalley declined to comment Tuesday, pointing Rolling Stone to his filings in the case. In his March paperwork, Whalley said his track record at Amaru speaks for itself.
“Over the last five ages, Amaru has increased in value by tens of millions of bucks as a direct result of Tom’s sound judgment and commerce acumen,” his filings state.
Whalley’s lawyers point to their client’s labors to “preserve, protect and exploit Tupac’s name, likeness, and sparkling property for the Trust and its beneficiaries,” such as his work monetizing the use of Tupac’s name and likeness in nationwide campaigns, winning back ownership of the “Thug Life” trademark, and regaining copyrights and master recordings, footage, and novel material from a bankrupt Death Row Records as well as Universal Music.
Whalley claims the immersive note was a project Afeni started in her lifetime, and he modestly made her vision a reality. He also highlights his work halting auctions of Tupac’s memorabilia and “recapturing” the items for Amaru and the trust.
But Sekyiwa’s lawyer says Tupac’s sister has her own confirmation for their family legacy. “She has repeatedly told me that she wants to show the domain who her brother and mother truly were, and what it was they truly were putting onward as values,” Donald David says, adding that his client has not seen the pop-up exhibit.
In the Monday filing, the sister and her lawyers say transparency is long overdue.
“(Whalley) has intentionally refused to properly clarify to the beneficiaries for nearly six years, and even once being ordered to provide a compliant accounting by this date, he has refused again. Instead, he and his advisors have renewed their commitment to a years-long pattern of detrimental conduct by withholding valuable information and refusing to properly account in accordance with the gracious, California law and his own fiduciary duties,” the 31-page filing devised by Rolling Stone says.
A hearing in the gracious battle is set for Aug. 10.
0 Comments