{"id":119562,"date":"2022-07-27T10:15:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T04:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/tupac-shakurs-sister-asks-court-for-estate-audit-blasts-trustee\/"},"modified":"2022-07-27T10:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T04:46:14","slug":"tupac-shakurs-sister-requests-court-for-an-estate-audit-blasts-trustee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/tupac-shakurs-sister-requests-court-for-an-estate-audit-blasts-trustee\/","title":{"rendered":"Tupac Shakur’s Sister Requests Court for an Estate Audit, Blasts Trustee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Shortly after Tupac Shakur\u2019s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, alleged in a blockbuster lawsuit that trustee Tom Whalley had \u201cembezzled millions\u201d from her late mother\u2019s estate, the music industry veteran slammed the claim as \u201coffensive\u201d \u201clegally baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whalley, who signed Tupac to Interscope and worked closely with the iconic rapper and his mom Afeni Shakur-Davis during their lifetimes, assured the court in a March filing that while it was true he had not yet produced a formal trust accounting to Sekyiwa following her mom\u2019s death in 2016, an outside firm had already been hired to prepare one.<\/p>\n

The executive who helped produce Tupac\u2019s 2Pacalypse now<\/em>, Thug Life<\/em>?, and Me Against the World <\/em>Also, it was admitted that while \u201csubstantial assets\u201d originally belonging to the late rapper \u2014 including multiple cars, gold records, clothing and pin ball machines that Afeni inherited as the sole beneficiary of her son\u2019s estate \u2014 had \u201cyet to be distributed\u201dSekyiwa was granted the trust \u201cabsolute discretion\u201dto keep the items and make the estate money. Many of these items ended up in the travelling. \u201cTupac Shakur: Wake Me When I\u2019m Free\u201dHe stated that exhibits are now open at L.A. Live.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the exhibit is up and running,\u201d Whalley told the court, distribution of the estate\u2019s remaining tangible personal property would start flowing to Sekyiwa. Whalley was ordered by a judge to provide a complete accounting of the trust before June 30, despite his assurances.<\/p>\n

Sekyiwa’s lawyers and Sekyiwa filed Monday, stating that the accounting had been filed as per order. \u201cfalls woefully short of compliance with the legal and accounting requirements of the trust.\u201dThey claimed that Whalley provided only figures. \u201cvery general categories\u201dListing jewelry valued at $217,000.00 without a catalog, is one example of an asset.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither (Whalley) lacks the capacity or the will to properly account to petitioners, or else he has something to hide,\u201d Sekyiwa\u2019s lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n

The alleged lack of transparency being called “a” \u201chide and control strategy,\u201dSekyiwa asked her lawyers to ask the court Monday to appoint a new judge \u201cindependent\u201dCPA to audit trust and provide detailed accounting of assets. That would include Amaru Entertainment, the record label started by Afeni that controls much of Tupac\u2019s music and intellectual property. The trust owns Amaru, but Whalley is the paid boss.<\/p>\n

Sekyiwa and her lawyers say they want to know how much Whalley pays himself through Amaru \u2013 and how much he has received to date. While Whalley does not take a fee for acting as estate trustee, he allegedly receives a 20 percent commission at Amaru, Sekyiwa\u2019s filings claim. She and her lawyers are unsure if such a commission is justified.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Afeni was alive, she got to make the choices. Now the only one getting to make choices is Mr. Whalley. There\u2019s a specific provision in the trust that we cite that says the conflict of interest, which is obvious, is waived so long as the compensation that he receives is basically commercially reasonable. This is a different situation from when Afeni was alive and directing things, setting the goals,\u201d Sekyiwa\u2019s lawyer Donald David tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cWe aren\u2019t even sure what he\u2019s receiving. We have nothing that makes us comfortable that Mr. Whalley has accurately disclosed the compensation he\u2019s receiving or that it\u2019s proper compensation pursuant to the terms of California law and the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, sources confirm to Rolling Stone<\/em>It is a matter of \u201cWake Me When I\u2019m Free,\u201d Whalley doesn\u2019t receive a cut. \u201cIt all goes to Amaru,\u201d sources tell\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Amaru is wholly owned by The Afeni Shakur Trust, and Sekyiwa\u2019s lawsuit amounts to the beneficiaries of the trust asking the court to give them access to information Whalley controls, David says. In Sekyiwa\u2019s underlying lawsuit, she alleged that Whalley has received $5.5 million over the past five years from Amaru, a figure she considers \u201cwell in excess of what would be reasonably necessary to retain a properly qualified third-party to perform such services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whalley’s representative declined to comment Tuesday. Rolling Stone<\/em>according to his filings in this case. Whalley stated in his March paperwork that his track record at Amaru speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last five years, Amaru has increased in value by tens of millions of dollars as a direct result of Tom\u2019s sound judgment and business acumen,\u201dHis files state.<\/p>\n

Whalley\u2019s lawyers point to their client\u2019s efforts to \u201cpreserve, protect and exploit Tupac\u2019s name, likeness, and intellectual property for the Trust and its beneficiaries,\u201d such as his work monetizing the use of Tupac\u2019s name and likeness in national campaigns, winning back ownership of the \u201cThug Life\u201dtrademark and regaining copyrights, master recordings, footage and other material from a bankrupt Death Row Records and Universal Music.<\/p>\n

Whalley asserts that the immersive exhibit was an idea Afeni had in her lifetime and that Whalley made it a reality. He also highlights his work halting auctions of Tupac\u2019s memorabilia and \u201crecapturing\u201dThe items for Amaru as well as the trust.<\/p>\n

But Sekyiwa\u2019s lawyer says Tupac\u2019s only sister has her own vision for their family legacy. \u201cShe has repeatedly told me that she wants to show the world who her brother and mother truly were, and what it was they truly were putting forward as values,\u201dDonald David stated that his client hadn’t seen the pop-up exhibit.<\/p>\n

The Monday filing by the sister and her attorneys stated that transparency and a place at the table were long overdue.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Whalley) has intentionally refused to properly account to the beneficiaries for nearly six years, and even after being ordered to provide a compliant accounting by this court, he has refused again. Instead, he and his advisors have renewed their commitment to a years-long pattern of detrimental conduct by withholding critical information and refusing to properly account in accordance with the trust, California law and his own fiduciary duties,\u201dThe 31-page document was filed by Rolling Stone<\/em> says.<\/p>\n

Aug. 10 is the date for the hearing in trust battle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after Tupac Shakur\u2019s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, alleged in a blockbuster lawsuit that trustee Tom Whalley had \u201cembezzled millions\u201d from her late mother\u2019s estate, the music industry veteran slammed the claim as \u201coffensive\u201d \u201clegally baseless.\u201d Whalley, who signed Tupac to Interscope and worked closely with the iconic rapper and his mom Afeni Shakur-Davis during their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":119563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Tupac-Shakurs-Sister-Asks-Court-for-Estate-Audit-Blasts-Trustee.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119564,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119562\/revisions\/119564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}