A forensic accountant has told the court just how much money Johnny Depp lost back in 2017.
Depp, 58, is suing ex-wife Amber Heard, 35, in a $50 million (£38.2 million) defamation lawsuit over abuse claims she made in a 2018 article in The Washington Post, despite not mentioning Depp by name in the op-ed.
As the trial reaches its fourth week, money laundering expert Mike Spindler has told the court that he was tasked with examining the lost earnings of the The Pirates of the Caribbean actor.
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Angenette Levy is the correspondent for the Law & Crime network that are broadcasting the trial, and she says that Spindler 'looked at finances between December 2018 (op-ed published) and December 2020'.
She tweeted: "Spindler concluded that #JohnnyDepp suffered lost earnings of $40M.
"Loss of Pirates 6 was $22.5M. Looked at other things including endorsements. Looked at 2017 bookings - instances in which JD is hired for a project.
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"For 2017, bookings were $17.5M – in a typical year, at that rate, what would we have expected JD to earn?
"Compared to actual bookings for period of time. 2017 was used as a baseline.
"Spindler asked whether he realizes this case is only about the Dec. 2018 op-ed. He says 'yes'."
Depp’s net worth is $100 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
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It was also revealed that Johnny Depp was supposed to receive £18 million (US$22.5 million, AU$32 million) for the sixth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie before it was a decided that he would be removed from the film.
The actor’s agent, Jack Whigham, said: "With respect to Johnny, it was catastrophic because it was coming from a first-person account, it was not from a journalist, not someone observing, it was from someone saying this happened to me."
Whigham claimed that the article written by Heard put the deal in jeopardy, which eventually collapsed.
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When asked by Heard's lawyer what role Depp was to play in the franchise, the agent said: "Captain Jack Sparrow."
Whigham went on to say: “The op-ed came out in December right as we were going on Christmas break.
"Minimata was supposed to start (showing) in January (2019). It was very, very difficult to keep Minimata together.
"The financing became shaky, Johnny's fee came down in order to save the movie."
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Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard
Anish Vij