What in the heck? Alanis’s Morissette’s manager embezzles for marijuana? Maybe if he had just asked?
Morissette‘s one-time business manager is headed behind bars after admitting to embezzling nearly $5 million from the singer-singer and investing the money in illegal California marijuana grow operation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Morissette shot into stardom in the 1990s with pop hits “Ironic” and “You Oughta Know.”
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According to documents filed this week, Jonathan Todd Schwartz, working for GSO Business Management, committed wire fraud and falsified tax returns from 2o1o to 2014.
In addition, Schwartz admitted in a plea agreement to embezzling $4.8 million from Morissette and another $1.7 million from celebrity clients.
Under the plea agreement, Schwartz will serve a four- to six-year prison sentence and must pay $8.2 million in restitution.
The disgraced money manager also copped to falsifying Morissette’s signature to withdraw funds from her bank accounts and lying to his client about how the money was spent, according to the court documents.
“When confronted about the missing funds, defendant falsely stated that the money was an ‘investment’ in illegal marijuana ‘grow’ businesses and that he and other GSO employees, none of whom defendant could identify, had delivered the cash to people, also unidentified, associated with the marijuana businesses,” the plea agreement stated.
In one incident, Schwartz tried to hide his crime by suggesting he’d committed a different one altogether.
“When confronted about the missing funds, defendant falsely stated that the money was an ‘investment’ in illegal marijuana ‘grow’ businesses and that he and other GSO employees, none of whom defendant could identify, had delivered the cash to people, also unidentified, associated with the marijuana businesses,” the plea agreement said.
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“Schwartz was caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar,” said IRS agent Anthony J. Orlando.
Deirdre Fike, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said “Mr. Schwartz was hired to protect his clients’ money by managing it professionally, but instead misappropriated millions to enrich himself.”
According to GSO, Schwartz no longer works for the agency. “Never in our 38 years has anything like this happened at GSO,” said Chris Reeder, an attorney representing GSO.
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