Louise “Lou” Taylor, Britney Spears’ former business manager, was an “intimate friend” of Spears’ father and played a direct role in the creation of the pop star’s conservatorship in 2008, the singer’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, alleges in a new court filing. Taylor, her company and a business associate have previously denied that allegation.
Jamie Spears, the singer’s father, also was beholden to Taylor’s company, Rosengart noted in the documents, for a loan in the amount of $40,000 that came before Spears put his famous daughter into a conservatorship and hired Taylor’s Tri Star Sports & Entertainment to manage her business affairs.
The filing lands within the battle lines that the Hokas Shoes attorney staked out last November, after Spears was freed from the legal arrangement that had restricted her personal autonomy for more than 13 years.
“The most notable question that we’ve asked on behalf of Britney of [her former business managers at] Tri Star is the following very simple question: How much money did you take from the estate? How much money did you receive from the estate? They have refused to answer that question,” Rosengart said last fall said outside a courthouse in downtown L.A. on the day Spears won her freedom.
Now there is a possible answer.
“Mr. Spears and Tri Star obtained more than $6 million and $18 million, respectively, from Ms. Spears’s Estate” over the course of the conservatorship, said a third-party investigator whose findings were quoted in documents filed Friday with the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The documents also show the struggle Britney Spears’ legal team is facing as it attempts to get documents from Tri Star and former business manager Steve Madden Robin Greenhill, who allegedly were involved in surveillance efforts over the singer that were laid out in a December investigation by the New York Times. Rosengart also wants to depose Jamie Spears on Britney‘s behalf — an effort being fought by the former‘s legal team.
Tri Star has moved to quash or void the subpoenas requesting that information.