Michael Vick gave his adviser $500,000 for a promised 10% return. He says he never saw it again. Her name was Mary Wong. Vick says she came across as "a person trying to help me," not as a financial adviser. In 2008, while in prison, he filed for bankruptcy. He owed $17.6 million. In 2009, Judge Frank Santoro rejected his first plan. He told Vick that being extraordinary at football "does not translate into financial sophistication." The second plan was approved in 2009. It required a financial planner and the sale of about $9 million in houses, boats and SUVs. That same year, he sued Wong over the $500,000. While he paid, Vick lived on $300,000 a year. By 2014, he had repaid more than $15 million. He paid back $17.4 million in all. The trustee said: "Paying 99 cents on the dollar, which he did, is remarkable." In the video below, Vick says he gave $8 million to one man and that "a lot of money came up missing." Whose fault was it: Vick's or the advisers he trusted?

Mase says Diddy bought his songs for about $20,000. When Mase offered $2 million cash to buy them back, Diddy said no. Mase says his only options were to match a European buyer's offer or wait until he turned 50. Then, in October 2022, Diddy went on The Breakfast Club and said the money ran the other way. In the video below, Diddy says he did one album with Mase, then gave him money for a second one that never came. "Three million dollars, that's facts. I got the receipt." He also called Mase a "fake pastor." Mase denied owing anything. In September 2023, Diddy gave the publishing rights back to Mase, along with Biggie's estate, Faith Evans, The LOX and 112. He told Billboard, "We're brothers and brothers fight." There is no public record that the $3 million was ever settled. Who was owed: the rapper who says his songs went for $20,000, or the boss who says he never got the album?

Steven Tyler's managers wanted him to get a $6 million to $8 million raise on American Idol. According to their lawsuit, he was offered the same pay as before. So they sued his lawyer for $8 million. Tyler wasn't a defendant. In December 2012 he filed a declaration for her anyway, calling the suit "an outrage and a travesty." The managers, Kovac Media Group, alleged attorney Dina LaPolt told an Idol agent that Allen Kovac had "overplayed his hand with his aggressive behavior." Tyler wrote that Kovac "insulted and verbally abused my fiancée, my lawyer, my family, my assistants, and my accountants." In February 2013, a judge dismissed the bulk of the suit. In February 2015, an appeals court brought the claims back. Then Billboard reported the case settled out of court. No amount was reported. In the video below, a report covers Tyler's announcement that he is leaving American Idol to focus on Aerosmith. Tyler's old managers lost a raise, then went after his lawyer for $8 million. Was that fair?

Forbes said El Chapo was worth $1 billion. A judge later ordered him to forfeit $12.6 billion. At sentencing, none of it had been recovered. Forbes first listed Joaquin Guzman in 2009. In 2013 it dropped him, saying it could not verify his wealth and that a growing share of his money went to protecting him and his family. In July 2015 he escaped Altiplano prison through a 1.5 km tunnel with lighting, ventilation and a motorcycle on rails. In October he met Sean Penn in the jungle for Rolling Stone. The editor's note says the article was submitted for his approval before publication. Mexican marines recaptured him in Los Mochis on January 8, 2016. Rolling Stone ran the interview the next day. In the video below, NBC reports from the safe house where he was caught. Mexico's attorney general says the Penn meeting revealed his location. US sources tell NBC that Penn played no role in the raid. Then the bill came. In July 2019, Judge Brian Cogan gave him life plus 30 years and the $12.6 billion forfeiture. "There was no justice here," Guzman told the court. Forbes could not prove he had a billion, and the government never found it. Where did the money go?

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger paid about $3 million in legal costs over their divorce and custody fight. One voicemail still cost him nearly a year with his daughter. In 2002, their custody deal gave him one hour on the phone with Ireland, then 7, in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon. In December 2005, a court commissioner held a closed hearing. Basinger's lawyer said: "We're hopeful this will be the end of it." It was not. In October 2006, Basinger pleaded not guilty to 12 misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt over the custody orders. She faced up to 60 days in jail and a $12,000 fine. In April 2007, TMZ aired Baldwin's voicemail to 11-year-old Ireland. He called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig." A judge suspended all contact. In 2008, he told Diane Sawyer the fallout brought him close to suicide: "I used to pray to God every night. I would get in bed, and I would say, please, don't let me wake up in the morning." In the video below, Baldwin tells Howard Stern that his daughter was the only one at his roast who said every horrible line exactly as written. One voicemail cost a father almost a year with his daughter. Was that fair?

Mel Gibson's divorce was said to cost him $425 million. Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of his daughter, got $750,000 and a silence deal. He and Robyn Moore married in 1980. No prenup. ABC took an $850 million estimate of his fortune, cut it in half and wrote that he was "$425 million poorer." No court ever confirmed that number. A judge signed the divorce on December 23, 2011, after lawyers briefly appeared in court. The terms are sealed. Oksana Grigorieva's story went the other way. In July 2010, tapes leaked of Gibson berating and threatening her. In March 2011 he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery. Three years of probation, no jail. That August they settled custody. He pays $750,000 in installments and funds a trust for their daughter Lucia. Neither side may speak or write about the relationship. Her own lawyer valued the whole package at $3 to $4 million. Gibson called the tapes "one terribly awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day." Years later, a judge vacated the battery conviction. In the video below, the case is discussed. The $425 million was never proven. Do you trust a number nobody ever confirmed?