Things aren’t going so well for the great Stan Lee.
The industry titan, best known for creating and/or co-creating the likes of The Avengers, Spider-Man and much of the X-Men, is reportedly at risk of losing his fortune and being “picked apart by vultures,” if sources close to The Daily Beast are to be believed.
Much of Lee’s alleged financial woes can be traced back to the people in his inner circle, who’ve been taking advantage of the 95-year-old in order to siphon vast portions of his wealth and use it to their own gain. Described by one anonymous source as “a real fucking mess,” the comic book mainstay is said to have lost $1.4 million due to a technical issue with a wire transfer, before $300,000 was removed from one of Lee’s bank accounts.
The latter sum was paid out to Hands of Respect, a company owned by his daughter’s former business partner, Jerry Olivarez. When asked about the partnership, Joan Celia Lee revealed the damaging effect it had on her ailing father.
Jerry and [an associate] promised to make me and my Dad a lot of money, but we got nothing out of it except losses. There was a lot of sexism involved with the way Jerry and [the associate] treated me… These guys separated me from my Dad. They alienated me. They used me. They did very bad paperwork, and they were very sneaky… They ruined my life.
It gets worse, too, as one “family insider” claims many of the people who have come into Stan Lee’s life following the death of his wife, Joan, are trying to con him out of a fortune.
JC’s never met a con man she doesn’t like, you know? Stan is not a whole lot better. Maybe their contemporaries and friends are all dead, and now they just have a bunch of hangers-on and sketchy-ass people hanging around. I have the feeling that he has been taken by everyone in the world.
Truth be told, it’s been a trying time for Stan Lee, who has been faced with allegations of sexual harassment – allegations that both he and his agent categorically deny. As many as six care nurses have come forward to claim that Lee behaved inappropriately in their company, allegedly groping them and openly masturbating, only to try and intimidate them into silence. Nothing has been proven as yet, though, and from what we understand, there is currently no sign of a criminal investigation.
We’ll be keeping you right up-to-date on the Stan Lee saga, along with those damning allegations, as time wears on, so be sure to stay tuned.