And has been so even before contracting his services, he says in court papers

Nov 18, 2009 09:00 GMT  ·  By
Former accountant and manager says Nicolas Cage is the only one responsible for his current money troubles
   Former accountant and manager says Nicolas Cage is the only one responsible for his current money troubles

Nicolas Cage, arguably one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood at the present moment, is severely in debt, as we reported a while back. While the actor is saying that his finances are this bad because of his manager’s inattention to all the details, the manager himself has just filed a lawsuit against Cage saying that he was broke when he first hired him, as TMZ can confirm.

According to court documents just released and uploaded on the aforementioned celebrity gossip website, the manager says Cage has been spending beyond his means and this is the sole reason why he is now in “financial ruin,” and not because of bad management of finances on his behalf. The manager, Samuel Levin, is now stating in a court of law that he repeatedly warned Cage he must earn more to keep up with his lifestyle, a recommendation the actor chose to ignore time and time again, for which reason he is now completely broke.

“The guy Nic Cage blamed for his financial ruin now claims by the time Nic hired him in 2001, ‘Coppola [Cage] had already squandered tens of millions of dollars... and owed millions of dollars in... income taxes, with no funds available to pay the tax debt.’ In his countersuit obtained by TMZ, Samuel Levin, CPA, says when he was hired he warned Nic he needed to earn $30 mil a year just to maintain his lavish lifestyle. As for the alleged lavish lifestyle... Levin cites the year 2007, in which Cage bought 3 homes totaling more than $33 mil, 22 cars (including 9 Rolls Royces), 12 pieces of expensive jewelry and 47 pieces of art,” TMZ writes.

Not only that, but Cage also kept on making investments that his manager advised him against. “Cage spent most of his free time ‘shopping for high-ticket purchases,’ including 15 homes, a Gulfstream jet, and a flotilla of yachts. And there’s this: Cage ‘also spent huge sums taking his sizable entourage on costly vacations and threw enormous, Gatsby-scale parties at his residences.’ The countersuit goes on: ‘The pinnacle of [Cage’s] spending spree came with his Quixotic acquisitions of Midford Castle in England and Schloss Neidstein Castle in Bavaria.’ Levin claims he warned Cage the castles were ‘decrepit’ and needed a king’s ransom just to make them habitable,” TMZ further says of the court documents.

Nicolas Cage, as we also reported on a previous occasion, owes over $6 million in backward taxes, a debt for which he holds Levin personally responsible. Levin, on the other hand, says he too is due about $130,000 in fees.