Johnny Depp lawsuit: Fed lines via earpiece, $30,000 a month on wine and other bizarre claims

Back in March 2016, actor Johnny Depp sacked his former business managers, and their company The Management Group, after 17 years handling his finances. Less than a year later, the Hollywood star filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against defendants Robert Mandel and Joel Mandel, claiming that TMG had mismanaged close to $40m of the actor's money.

As the legal battle continues to make headlines, IBTimes UK rounds up all the shocking claims that have emerged since the allegations began...

January 2017

In Depp's lawsuit, he claimed that TMG collected fees without his approval, incurred penalties for failing to pay his taxes, and loaned millions of dollars without consent.

"Mr Depp is one of the most sought after and highly paid actors in the world. He is also the victim of the gross misconduct of his business managers – the Management Group and attorney Joel and Robert Mandel – who collected tens of millions of dollars in contingency fees, purportedly based on an oral contract, all at Mr Depp's expense," read the complaint.

"Like many successful artists who depend upon financial professionals to advise them, Mr Depp trusted and reasonably relied on TMG to handle his financial and certain legal affairs and to ensure that he and his family would have a financially secure future, built on the foundation of substantial monies Mr Depp earned through years of hard work."

"But instead, Mr Depp lost tens of millions of dollars and has been forced to dispose of significant assets to pay for TMG's self-dealing and gross misconduct."

February

TMG responded in a scathing statement alleging that Depp is a "habitual liar who denies responsibility for his own outrageous conduct". The managers then launched a counter-suit which detailed how Depp has allegedly lavished money on bizarre items. The actor was said to have dropped a cool $3m on blasting Hunter S Thompson's ashes from a cannon as well as purchasing 200 paintings by the likes of Basquiat, Klimt and Warhol, "world-class" jewellery, guitars and a yacht.

The deposition – filed by lawyer Michael J Kump – claimed that he had bought $75m worth of property and often spent around $30,000 a month on wine.

April

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Depp stated: "If I want to buy 15,000 cotton balls a day, it's my thing. Why didn't they drop me as a client if I was so out of control? I've worked very, very hard for a lot of years and trusted a lot of people, some who've clearly let me down. It's my money."

May

According to The Mandel Company (on behalf of TMG), Johnny Depp hasn't memorised his own lines "for years" and regularly employed a sound engineer to feed him his lines through a special earpiece on film sets.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star's former financial managers made the claims in the latest court document as part of an ongoing legal battle. "He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to employ a full-time sound engineer, who Depp has used for years to feed him lines during film production," the lawsuit stated.

"Depp insisted that this sound engineer be kept on a yearly retainer so that he no longer had to memorise his lines." It went on to suggest that Depp may have "compulsive spending disorder" and needs "a mental examination."