50 Cent to Bankruptcy Court: Photos Show Fake Money
Despite declaring bankruptcy in July 2015, 50 Cent‘s Instagram account doesn’t show a rapper battling through money issues. Photos of 50 Cent‘s piles of high-denomination money navigated its way from the rapper’s 9.3 million Instagram followers to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford, Connecticut, which on Wednesday will question 50 Cent about his actual finances after seeing the photos.
The Associated Press reports that the photos – like the one where the rapper spells “B-R-O-K-E” with stacks of $100 bills, or the photo where 50 Cent stands in a room with piles of money scaling the wall like ivy or the refrigerator for cooling cash – drew the attention of the court. However, in court papers, 50 Cent told the judge that the money in the photos was fake and not actual tender. Despite the rapper’s claim, the judge still appointed an examiner to investigate 50 Cent’s actual assets.
50 Cent filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2015 after the rapper was found guilty of posting a woman’s sex tape online without permission in 2009; the jury awarded that woman – Lastonia Leviston, who has a daughter with rapper Rick Ross – $7 million in damages. Soon after, 50 Cent filed Chapter 11 in order to “reorganize his financial affairs, as he addresses various professional liabilities and takes steps to position the future of his various business interests.”
“I’m taking the precautions that any other good businessperson would take in this situation,” 50 Cent said after the filing. “You know when you’re successful and stuff, you become a target. I don’t want to be a bullseye. I don’t want anybody to pick me as the guy that they just come to with astronomical claims and go through all that.
“Walt Disney has filed bankruptcy. Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy,” he added. “It means you’re reorganizing your finances, but it does stop things from moving forward that you don’t want moving forward. I gotta decent legal team. You don’t have to worry.”