According to prosecutors in New York City, Law & Order star, Tamara Tunie was swindled out of $1M by her accountant and business manager. They allege that beginning back in 2002, her accountant got a credit card in his name by pretending to be Tamara's husband and that he also started writing checks to himself to the tune of $1M. How it took everyone 8 years to discover all of this is pretty incredible. It isn't like Tamara is making $1M a week. She makes a very, very good living but not so you would not notice if you were $1M short.
For his part, the accountant says he is innocent and that Tamara knew about all the charges and transactions.
The old it was a gift not a loan routine.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Tamara she is a very hard working actress. She was doing multiple jobs at the same time. Appearing on As the World turns and and primetime shows.
It's a horrible feeling when someone you trust steals from you. Kathy Griffin's now ex husband did the same thing to her. He siphoned 75k over a year right under her nose until her accountant brought it to her attention.
I doubt Tamara will ever get that money back.
If he stole regularly from her over that eight-year timespan, he would have had to cover an average of $2400 per week from her. I would notice that pretty quickly, but if she's pulling in around a million a year, that'd be only ten percent of her income. If it's around $600k per year, that'd be at twenty percent. It could easily go unnoticed or explained away as some kind of tax or investment expense.
ReplyDeleteI had a a friend with a pay pay account and it got hacked. The thieves took 2-3 dollars out at a time at random times. Something you at first don't notice but over a year it added up. By the time my friend caught on it was almost $1,000 buck she was out of.
ReplyDeleteAnd Pay Pal was a nightmare to deal with. Eventually she got her money back but she was pulling elephant teeth to get it back. And the cops were no help either it was some African scammers.
being embezzled from is not uncommon for celebs. it would seem like they would put safeguards in place just seeing it happen to others. that's what i would do.
ReplyDeleteMy knee-jerk reaction is she had to have known. Only people massively depressed and virtually nonfuctioning wouldn't notice for that many years. It's that we're in a bad economy, she's probably not making what she did, and she wants out of the debt.
ReplyDeleteI am such a HUGE Tamara Tunie fan! This makes me so sad. My guess is she trusted this person who worked for her a bit too much and he couldn't help himself. As her financial advisor he probably knew exactly how to hide this too. I remember an Oprah show where she was advising someone else in this same predicament to sign every check personally. I guess that's what Oprah does too although it's hard to imagine. Anyway, it is a shame that this happened. I wish her the best in getting this back and also in finding someone else trustworthy to work for her.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't know about this - the point of hiring an accountant and business manager is so that you don't have to deal with it. Accountancy is extremely complex and difficult to understand and if you aren't an accountant, you will miss it. He obviously cooked the books and moved money around to cover it up. She's a busy actress, I'm sure she didn't have time to scrutinize everything.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I'm speaking from experience :(
She is such a hard working lady. I'm sad to hear this. Ladies, watch your bank account. Smaller fish go for smaller amounts. The vultures are out there just waiting!
ReplyDeleteaww, just like everyone else I love her in SVU. Hope she will get justice
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