When you think about the A-listers from Hollywood, there are two things that come to your mind – their celebrity status and immense wealth. Though it’s always nice to fantasize about receiving a $10 to $20 million paycheck, a massive net worth of $400 to $500 billion, a luxurious life, an ocean of fans, meeting crazy fans while going out in public, etc, they also become more prone to con artists and scammers.
When the A-listers are scammed, their bank accounts have to bear the brunt. The financial losses they incur are of an elephantine scale. Below are some of those Hollywood A-listers who have fallen prey to a few of the biggest money scams. Check them out.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro is one of the most prolific actors in tinsel town. He has attained legendary status, thanks to his brilliant performances on screen. However, the actor lost more than a million dollars when Lawrence Salander, an art dealer, sold off a collection of paintings that were created by De Niro’s late father. This was really a setback for him. But he is not the only one who has fallen prey to a scam by Salander. Salander has scammed other prominent personalities, including John McEnroe, a tennis legend. McEnroe lost around $120 million. Salander was found guilty and received a sentence of six to eighteen years behind bars in the year 2010.
Sting
Sting has been raking in millions of dollars while playing at high-profile weddings over the years. He has made cameo appearances in several movies, including Zoolander 2, and even sold his Henri Matisse artwork to collect money for the empire. However, he had suffered financial setbacks long back. Keith Moore, his financial advisor for a long time, received a six-year sentence in jail in the year 1995. He has pocketed 6 million pounds banking on some not-so-genuine investments in eco-friendly green boxes to a chain of Indian restaurants in Australia, as per the sources.
Anne Hathaway
A-listers are human beings too and therefore, they are also prone to get hurt even by their close ones. Anne Hathaway is one of the most known faces in tinsel town. Her performance in Interstellar is still fresh in everyone’s memories. Raffaello Follieri, her ex-boyfriend, was accused of misappropriating more than $2.4 million of investor’s money. The amount included funds from Hathaway. Follieri presented himself as an official from the Vatican and promised to hand over the Roman Catholic Church’s property to the investors. He served a prison sentence of four and a half years and came out in 2012. Follieri was deported back to Italy where he is working as an active investor, as per sources.
Kiefer Sutherland
Who would ever think of Kiefer Sutherland as a cattle salesman? However, that was what the 24-famed actor wanted to be in 2007. He invested an amount of $869,000 in the cattle industry. It directly benefited Michael Wayne Carr as it went into his checking account, instead of presenting some nice business opportunities for the star. As has been known, there was no money and no cattle. Sutherland was in for a shock. Carr was ordered to pay back approximately $1.6 million to the people he had scammed, including Sutherland.
Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler has beautiful skin and it shows. With that being said, she had to pay a big price for it and that was something she never dreamt of. Aside from stars like Melanie Griffith, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Aniston, and others, Maria Gabriela Perez shelled out more than $280,000 after she got credit card information from her A-list clients. Sources revealed that the beauty consultant didn’t own that money. Tyler was maximum affected as Perez withdrew something in the ballpark of $214,000 on two of her American Express cards. Afterward, Perez was found guilty and received a house arrest sentence.
Sidney Poitier
A-listers getting scammed is nothing new these days. Poitier, along with Andy Warhol and others was forced into a fraudulent tax scheme by Charles Agee in 1987. This financial scam was the largest in America back in those times. The fictitious losses amounted to over $1 billion, according to sources.
Aside from these A-listers, the other big names who were victims of money scams are LeAnn Rimes, Billy Joel, Noel Edmonds, Kevin Bacon, and Steven Spielberg. Do you know of any other Hollywood celebrity who was scammed? Let us know in the comments.