Alyssa Milano didn’t have such a charmed relationship with her former business managers, according to a lawsuit filed by the actress and her husband last week.
The lawsuit, filed by Milano and her husband David Bugliari, claim that the management firm Hellie, Hoffer and Company engaged in “gross negligence and and malfeasance” that “left its clients with millions of dollars in debt and their credit in ruins.”
The suit goes on to claim that the firm engaged in “a cover-up of the escalating financial chaos they created by withholding and actively concealing material financial information from their clients.”
Among the alleged misdeeds, according to the suit, the firm failed “to timely pay Plaintiffs’ obligations including credit card bills, mortgage payments, insurance premiums and income taxes, resulting in the accrual of unnecessary and substantial interest and penalties.”
The suit also claims that the firm engaged in a “shell game” by arranging “loans for plaintiffs from other HHC clients with exorbitant interest rates, penalties and other unfavorable terms, while at the same time making loans from Plaintiffs to other HHC clients.”
The firm is also accused of forging Milano’s signature on financial documents both before and after their services were terminated, and failing to disclose conflicts of interest.
“As a result of Defendants’ misconduct and malfeasance, Plaintiffs have suffered financial and reputational devastation that will take years — and millions of dollars — to repair,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the lawsuit, Milano and her husband terminated the firm’s services in June 2016, after the couple experienced a rise in calls from collection agencies, a notice of default on their mortgage and complaints from employees of “untimely and incomplete payments.”
“A subsequent review of Plaintiffs’ financial records by their new business manager disclosed extensive malfeasance which left Plaintiffs’ finances in shambles,” the lawsuit reads. “HHC’s files included financial documents with forged signatures, loans from Plaintiffs’ accounts to other HHC clients at times when Plaintiffs had insufficient funds to meet their own financial needs, undisclosed amendments to notes in favor of other HHC clients, undisclosed and unapproved capital contributions to a failing investment in which Hellie personally invested and late home mortgage payments for eight of the prior thirteen months. The full extent of Defendants’ breaches and the havoc wreaked on Plaintiffs’ finances are still being investigated.”
Alleging negligence, fraud, theft and other counts, the suit is seeking damages in excess of $10 million.
TheWrap has reached out to Hellie, Hoffer and Company for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.