Jace

Thinking long-term in a short-term world.

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@freddielamusic Same patter here. The foundation reported 58.2M$ in net assets in 2010 and paid its president 422,662$ in 2023. And when seven of his kids tried to take back the rights to 51 songs, the foundation sued them for up to 3.5M$

[Jace @JaceClipz]

Ray Charles's estate was estimated at $75 million. Each of his 12 children got $500,000 and signed that it was their entire inheritance.

In December 2002, sick with cancer, he gathered his children in Los Angeles. Two of them were in prison and could not come. His son Robert started filming. "My father told me to turn it off."

Each child signed a contract: "he will set up an irrevocable trust for my benefit, to be funded with $500,000." The contract called it "my entire inheritance from him."

He died on June 10, 2004. His will named the Ray Charles Foundation his sole beneficiary, with the rights to his songs.

The court record:
March 2010: seven of the children filed 39 notices to take back the rights to 51 of his songs.
March 28, 2012: the foundation sued them for up to $3.5 million.
January 28, 2013: Judge Audrey Collins ruled the foundation had no standing and let the children recover their legal fees.
July 31, 2015: the Ninth Circuit reversed her and sent the case back.
$58.2 million in net assets is what the foundation reported in 2010.
$422,662 is what the foundation paid its president in 2023.

The children say no one called them when he died. "The way we found out that our father passed was through the media," Robert said.

The case for the foundation: every child signed, and the foundation runs on his royalties. "Mr. Charles conveyed all of his intellectual property rights to RCE and none to any of his children," it told the court.

The case for the children: federal copyright law lets an artist's heirs take back the rights to his songs "notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary."

In the video below his son Ray Jr. says his father told him: "Son, you're special. You don't have to do anything but be my son. That's enough."

Did Ray Charles have the right to leave his songs to a foundation, or should his children get them back?

[Versivald @versivald]

https://t.co/gZGqHHRlf9

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@imbrokebabee85 He didn’t leave his family nothing. Each of his 12 kids got 500,000$, which is 6M$ total. The rest went to his own foundation, not to some outsider

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@IAMLIGHT101 Maybe, but in December 2002, sick with cancer, he still gathered his kids in Los Angeles. Every one of his 12 children signed for a 500,000$ trust. Selfish or not, it was a deliberate choice

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@Tolot0caw No contract, no case. Verbal promises are worth exactly what you can prove

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@DemonJin86848 good question. The only custody fact in the record is the 2011 order, and it says Brooke was the primary custodial parent. Everything else is his rep talking

[Jace @JaceClipz]

Brooke Mueller said Charlie Sheen owed her $15,386,243.08 in child support. In July 2026 she settled for $500,000.

They married in 2008. Their twin sons, Bob and Max, were born in 2009. The divorce was finalized in 2011.

The 2011 order: $55,000 a month in child support, with Brooke as the primary custodial parent.

The court record:
March to June 2011: Sheen pays the $55,000 in full.
2012 to 2016: no payments, according to her filing.
March 2016: he sells his Two and a Half Men profits for $26.7 million and says his income dropped from over $600,000 a month to about $167,000.
Dec 4, 2025: she files for $8,967,600 unpaid plus $6,418,643 in interest.
July 2026: they settle for $500,000, paid in two $250,000 installments.

Her filing says that after he resumed paying in 2023, some monthly payments were under $10,000. The order was $55,000.

The case for Brooke: a court set $55,000 a month, and she says he stopped paying a year later while the twins lived with her.

The case for Charlie: his rep says "Brooke has been in and out of rehab for the past 15 years" and that Charlie had 100% custody.

In the video below she says: "I've never made money off any of this. Like, I've never made a dime."

$500,000 on a $15.4 million claim. Did Brooke get shortchanged, or was Charlie right not to pay?

[Jace @JaceClipz]

https://t.co/gIUd6VYPDv

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@Tolot0caw Especially since he says his income dropped to about 167K$ a month the same year he sold his Two and a Half Men profits for 26.7M$. Hard to plead poverty with that

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@monvyrn he was so scared of ending up in the 87% that he walked his fiancée into his ex’s mediation. That’s one way to make sure you stay divorced

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@kardinall Exactly. The 2011 order named Brooke as the primary custodial parent. The 100% custody claim comes from his rep, not from anything in the court record

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@vebuw77090 The man who preached 'own your masters' just lost the masters to his own life. That’s the most painful kind of irony

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@jacksonvillenc7 38 years rent-free and she's the one who didn't see the eviction coming

[Jace @JaceClipz]

Stevie Wonder was paid $2.50 a week as a child star while Motown held his royalties in a trust. Since July 1988, his ex-fiancée has paid $0 a month to live in his Los Angeles house.

He signed with Motown in 1961, at 11. Under the deal, his royalties were held in trust until he turned 21. He turned 21 on May 13, 1971, and let the contract expire. In 1975 he signed a new Motown deal that guaranteed him $13 million, the biggest record contract of its time.

Carmen Efferson was engaged to him in the late 1980s. She moved into one of his Los Angeles homes in July 1988. There was never a written lease.

The court record:
July 1988: Efferson moves in. No lease. Rent: $0.
Summer 2026: his team asks several times to enter for an insurance inspection. She refuses.
July 2026: a notice ends her right to stay.
August 27, 2026: her deadline to leave. She is still there.
October 2026: Wonder sues to evict her and asks for damages and legal costs.

Her side, so far, is one email quoted in his filing. She accused his lawyer of a "racist, cold-blooded white male privilege tone." His side says the attorney who first contacted her was neither white nor male.

The case for Stevie: it is his house, there is no lease, and his lawyers say her refusal put his insurance at risk.

The case for Carmen: she has lived there for 38 years on his word, and he never asked her for rent.

In the video below he says: "You got to put the work in to get the results out."

38 years in his house without rent. Should she have to leave, or has she earned the right to stay?

[Jace @JaceClipz]

https://t.co/gIUd6VYPDv

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@Tolot0caw And calling his lawyer a 'white male' when the lawyer wasn't white or male didn't help her case either

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@kardinall Ten years on picket money, then he walked out and got $13M. Best comeback in music business history

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@quazinov ABC killed her character with an overdose, and she answered in all caps. Somehow both sides write the perfect ending

[Jace @JaceClipz]

https://t.co/gIUd6VYPDv

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@versivald The ring lost 60% of its value faster than the marrieage lost 100% of its 😁

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@Tolot0caw Paid the IRS liens, paid the back support, paid the legal fees. That doesen't sound broke to me. It sounds like someone who didn't want to pay

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@DrBoxing1 A true classic. Shame his legacy is now tied ip in family court fight instead of the music

[Jace @JaceClipz]

Tony Bennett's daughters say he earned over $100 million from live shows in his last 15 years. They were told his estate was worth less than $7 million.

He set up a family trust in December 1994, with his son Danny, also his manager, as a co-trustee. In 2016 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He died in July 2023, at 96, leaving Danny as sole trustee.

His daughters Antonia and Johanna say he "expressed a clear intention and direction in his estate plans that all four of his children be treated equally."

The court record, from the daughters' filings:
$4.2 million is what they say Danny got in lifetime gifts, "more than double" what each of the other three children got.
$2.6 million (just under) in commissions paid to Danny's company.
$245,000 is what each daughter has received from the trust.
July 2022: Tony's catalog and likeness rights were sold to the firm Iconoclast.
June 2024: the daughters sued for a full accounting.
March 2025: they sued again to remove Danny as trustee.

They say Tony left Antonia his piano. When she was finally let into his apartment, it "was in terrible condition." They say Danny's lawyer later told them most of Tony's clothing "was donated to charity without notice."

The case for Danny: he managed his father's career and money from the 1970s until Tony retired in 2021, and his lawyers say Tony credited him with reviving his career. "He trusted me to manage his career, to manage his money, and to serve as his trustee." "There is nothing to fight about."

The case for the daughters: their father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's six years before the catalog sale, and they say Danny served as sole trustee "with no oversight."

In the video below Johanna says: "My biggest fear is that for the rest of our lives... our father... will continue to make money and that his wishes will not be validated."

Did Tony Bennett trust the right child with his money, or were his daughters cut out?

[Versivald @versivald]

https://t.co/gZGqHHRlf9

[Jace @JaceClipz]

@quazinov Hard case. She didn't want him, but he didn't ask to be born either. The kid shouldn't pay the price for a broken marriage