Last week, rapper 50 Cent was ordered by a court to pay $5 million to a Florida mom for posting a sex tape of her online. This week, 50 Cent filed bankruptcy.
While there have been lots of speculation about what that means for 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, there is also lots of misinformation being spread.
When you have a nickname like “50 Cent,” people will make lots of jokes if you file bankruptcy. Things get even more confusing when the news reports about your bankruptcy include news that you have anywhere from $10 million to $50 million.
Is 50 Cent broke? Is that what his bankruptcy means?
“I’m taking the precautions that any other good businessperson would take in this situation,” 50 Cent said about his filing. “You know when you’re successful and stuff, you become a target. I don’t wanna be a bullseye. I don’t want anybody to pick me as the guy that they just come to with astronomical claims and go through all that.”
50 Cent has even taken to joking about his bankruptcy himself.
“Walt Disney has filed bankruptcy. Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy,” 50 Cent explained. “It means you’re reorganizing your finances, but it does stop things from moving forward that you don’t want moving forward.”
“I got a decent legal team,” he assured fans. “You don’t have to worry.”
Read this before you start making your 50 cents jokes http://t.co/dMG4uyL9E3 pic.twitter.com/hI94Zwus9D
— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) July 14, 2015
50 Cent’s attorney filled that explanation out a bit more, saying, “This filing for personal bankruptcy protection permits Mr. Jackson to continue his involvement with various business interests and continue his work as an entertainer, while he pursues an orderly reorganization of his financial affairs.”
If trump go through another bankruptcy he might actually be finished this time. Legit finished.
— Savage Casanova (@BluuDemize) July 1, 2015
Donald Trump has faced similar misunderstandings as 50 Cent regarding his own bankruptcy filings in his past, especially now that he is running in the GOP primary for President.
Trump struck out at these misunderstandings, saying, “These are stupid people who say this, ‘Didn’t Trump declare bankruptcy? Didn’t he go bankrupt?’ I didn’t go bankrupt.”
“I’ve cut debt — by the way, this isn’t me personally, it’s a company,” Trump told Forbes. “Basically I’ve used the laws of the country to my advantage and to other people’s advantage just as [business moguls] Leon Black has, Carl Icahn, Henry Kravis has, just as many, many others on top of the business world have.”
“We buy a company, throw it into a chapter, negotiate with the banks, make a fantastic deal. They were never personal [bankruptcies]. This is a business thing. I’ve used the laws of this country to pare debt. This has nothing to do with me personally. The bankruptcy laws can be used to your advantage.”
Using these laws as allowed is what 50 Cent is also doing.
Michael Venditto, who has represented clients in high-profile Chapter 11 cases, said, “To the ordinary person in the street, [four corporate bankruptcies] may seem surprising, but certainly not to me. Chapter 11 is how you reshape and restructure a company that has problems. It doesn’t indicate anything nefarious or even bad management.”
Donald trump filed for bankruptcy 5 times. He thinks he's qualified to run a country? go do a test run on Detroit first
— Eva (@ReineEvaa) July 1, 2015
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