Al Pacino ended up ‘broke’ after crooked accountant fleeced him of $50 million
Opening up about his devastating loss in his new ‘Sonny Boy’ memoir, Al Pacino says he ended up totally “broke” after a corrupt accountant fleeced him of $50 million.
Al Pacino ended up totally “broke” after a corrupt accountant fleeced him of $50 million.
The ‘Scarface’ actor, 84, makes the admission in his newly-released memoir ‘Sonny Boy’, in which he also opens up about his struggles to find fame and with drinking.
He said in the book about being the victim of a crooked accountant who eventually served seven-and-a-half years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme he started “to get warnings that my accountant at the time, a guy who had lots of celebrity clients, was not to be trusted” in around 2011.
The actor said he was already paying a “ridiculous amount of money to rent some big fancy house in Beverly Hills”, then he took his entire family on a trip to Europe where he flew various guests overseas on a “gorgeous Gulfstream 550” jet and rented an entire floor at the Dorchester hotel in London.
Al said it was only when he returned to his Hollywood home he became suspicious after realising his finances had not dramatically changed despite spending so much on vacation.
He said: “I thought, It’s simple. It’s clear. I just know this. Time stopped. I am f*****.
“I was broke. I had $50 million, and then I had nothing. I had property, but I didn’t have any money.
“In this business, when you make $10 million dollars for a film, it’s not $10 million.
“Because after the lawyers, and the agents, and the publicist, and the government, it’s not $10 million, it’s $4.5 million in your pocket.
“But you’re living above that because you’re high on the hog. And that’s how you lose it.
“It’s very strange, the way it happens. The more money you make, the less you have.
“The kind of money I was spending and where it was going was just a crazy montage of loss.
“The landscaper was getting $400,000 a year and, I don’t exaggerate these things. It just went on and on.
“Mind you, that was for landscaping at a house I didn’t even live in.”
Al said he was in his 70s when he learned he was bust – and added about the shock: “I wasn’t a young buck, and I was not going to be making the kind of money from acting in films that I had made before.
“The big paydays that I was used to just weren’t coming around anymore. The pendulum had swung, and I found it harder to find parts for myself.”
He said while he riding he only did films “if I thought I related to the part and felt I could bring something”.
After his cash crisis hit, Al added he agreed to star in films such as Adam Sandler’s mocked ‘Jack and Jill’ movie – and ended his ban on taking advertising work.
He said: “‘Jack and Jill’ was the first film I made after I lost my money. To be honest, I did it because I didn’t have anything else.
“Adam Sandler wanted me, and they paid me a lot for it. So I went out and did it, and it helped.
“I love Adam, he was wonderful to work with and has become a dear friend. He also just happens to be a great actor and a hell of a guy.”
