Singer Alanis Morrisette is Suing Her Old Business Manager for $15 Million Dollars Because He Stole Around $5 Million Dollars!!!

Wow!!!  This is a HOT ASS MESS!!!! Singer Alanis Morrisette is suing her old business manager Jonathan Schwartz and GSO Business Management for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, fraud and negligence.

Schwartz handled Morissette’s finances from 2009 to 2016 and was responsible for collecting income, managing investment accounts and paying bills on her behalf. According to the complaint, she fired him in March because he failed to respond in a timely manner to her requests for information about her finances. 

When the singer’s new business manager, Howard Grossman, took over, he found at least 116 cash transfers to Schwartz from Morissette’s accounts during a four-year period, totaling more than $4.7 million.

“Defendants concealed these distributions from Morissette, convincing her that she was in tremendous financial shape when, in fact, they were draining her assets and leading her on a road that could have led to financial ruin,” states the complaint.

Rich people are sometimes lazy and ignorant! And it sure looks like Alanis is one of them. If you give someone complete control over your finances and you do not have any checks and balances, ie an annual audit, or a semi-annual audit, then you are doomed from jump street. If I were wealthy, NO ONE would such free access to my money and the ability to make wire transfers or write checks without me co-signing or verifying that the transaction is a legitimate one. Alanis just gave her business manager carte blanche when it came to her finances, he wrote checks to pay bills, he advised her on what jobs to take to make money, and he had the ability to make wire transfers of funds. If you give someone the keys to your kingdom, they are bound to run off with some of your gold. Don't do it!!! Make them give you an annual balance sheet and then hire a forensic accountant to verify the information on the balance sheet. So if the balance sheet says you paid $45,992.83 for gas and electric for your California house, there should be a file which contains 12 months of bills from PG&E that add up to $45,992.83. PERIOD!!!  And if there is a wire transfer to purchase 1,000 shares of Apple Stock for $15.86 per share, then the transfer better be for $15,860.00 plus whatever the fee is for that transaction. I remember seeing Leona Helmsley on the news one night after she got out prison for back taxes, and she had a stack of checks to sign and each one had a stack of papers paper clipped to it that I bet was proof of the need for the check. And Leona would pick up a check and the attached stack, read the check then read through the stack attached and then she would sign the check. And that stuck in my head because it showed me that she on top of her finances. She was checking that each check was a valid transaction. I know people don't like a lot of paperwork but she could have scanned each stack after she read it. And then shredded the paper copies. Save it to your computer and also back it up to your cloud storage and then box and store the paper in those bank boxes.

Morissette claims Schwartz didn’t just steal from her, he also transferred $8 million from investment accounts that were supposed to remain untouched in order to pay for expenses, despite her direction that she should live off her current income and interest.

GSO also is suing Schwartz. That suit, filed Monday, claims the company started digging into Schwartz’s behavior after Grossman confronted him. 

“The investigation revealed that Mr. Schwartz was burning through money to sustain a lavish lifestyle, including a $50,000 vacation to Bora Bora and an outstanding gambling dept of $75,000 at a Casino in the Bahamas,” states the complaint. “He also owes the U.S. government a substantial sum for unpaid taxes.”

Anyway, Alanis is also suing the firm that Jonathan Schwartz worked for, GSO Management and they are also suing Jonathan to judicially expel Schwartz from the firm, punitive damages and wants him to repay a $588,000 advance he was given by the company.
Schwartz is no longer listed as a partner on the firm’s website.

I'm really sorry this happened to Alanis but I hope it's a wake up call for her to not be so trusting when it comes to her money. Make sure the business manager is bonded and that the bond is sufficient to cover any losses. And then once you file charges if someting happens, then make a claim on that bond right away. Good luck with your case gurl.