Photo Credit: Sekyiwa Shakur/Instagram
2Pac’s sister Sekyiwa Shakur is suing the head of her late brother’s estate, Tom Whalley, former Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records. He took over in 2016 after 2Pac’s mother Afeni Shakur passed to which Sekyiwa believes the problems began. She along with The Tupac Shakur Foundation are accusing him of embezzling millions “for his own benefit.”
The lawsuit says, Upon information and belief, Whalley has already received more than $5.5 million that he has paid himself in the last five years through Amaru…he has effectively embezzled millions of dollars for his own benefit well in excess of what would be reasonably necessary to retrain a property qualified third-party to perform such services.” It goes on to say, “As a result, Whalley has unreasonably enriched himself at the expense of the beneficiaries and in bad faith by taking excessive compensation.”
Sekyiwa says she’s the primary beneficiary of the estate and should have received certain items on top of the fact that the foundation is entitled to 10% of annual income. Both do not want Whaley to be in charge of the estate and are asking a judge to “recompense” them at least $4,000,000. They’re also asking for a full accounting of the estate.
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Howard King, a lawyer for the trust has said about the allegations, “Tom Whalley was a friend and confidant of Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur, since signing Tupac to his first major recording deal in the 90s and helping to arrange the funds to bail Tupac out of jail. After Tupac passed away, Afeni requested Tom’s help with the job of managing the Tupac assets Afeni had inherited, a task he performed, without charge, for many years.” He continued,
“In 2015, at Afeni’s request, Tom became the manager of Amaru, the company Afeni had established to protect and exploit all Tupac assets, on normal and typical terms. Under Tom’s management, enhanced by various personal loans Tom has made to the company, Amaru has gone from virtually insolvent to a solid financial footing.” He continued,
“Afeni’s faith in Tom was further evidenced by her appointment of Tom as successor trustee of her trust. Tom became the current trustee after Afeni passed away, but has never taken any trustee’s fees even though his workload has increased well beyond what his management of Amaru required.” He ended with,
“These legal claims are disappointing and detrimental to all beneficiaries of the trust. We are confident the Court will promptly conclude that Tom has always acted in the best interests of Amaru, the trust, and all beneficiaries.”
Handling the finances of loved ones after they’ve passed can be the absolute worst and adding on celebrity status doesn’t help any either. Now 2Pac has a lot of fans out there. If Sekyiwa has any problems in this situation, all she has to do is put the word out. Those fans are just as ready to fight today as they were in ’96. Metaphorically that is.
