R. Kelly’s net worth is said to have dropped to “negative $2 million.”
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that the convicted sex offender is completely broke with a net worth of the equivalent of £1.65 million.
The website states: “In April 2020, Kelly told a judge – as part of his release from prison – that he owed nearly $1.9 million (£1.6 million) to the IRS alone.”
To prove that Kelly was not a flight risk during the trial, his lawyers filed legal documents showing that the fallen 1990s R&B superstar owed the IRS $1.8 million (£1.4 million), according to TMZ.
In 2019, Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg argued for a reduction in the singer’s $1 million (£826,000) bail, telling a judge that his client’s finances were “a mess.”
After the bail hearing, Greenberg told reporters, “He’s someone who should be rich at this stage of his career … and through mismanagement, through hangers-on, through bad contracts, through bad deals and through bad leases like the ones for his studio. He really has no money right now.”
At the peak of his career, Kelly is estimated to have had a net worth of around $100 million (£82.5 million).
His 1995 album “R.Kelly” sold four million copies and he subsequently released a series of multi-platinum records.
In August, Kelly will face a second trial. He is accused of possessing images of child sexual abuse.
The scheduled hearing will be the second time he has been confronted with allegations related to such images, after he was acquitted of similar charges in 2008.
Kelly – real name Robert Sylvester Kelly – has pleaded not guilty.
The singer was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the US District Court in New York on Wednesday (29.06.22) for hatching a scheme to seduce and sexually exploit young aspiring singers and underage children.
He was previously convicted by a jury last year on several counts of organized crime related to bribery and forced labor.
It was also found that the musician had violated the anti-sex trafficking law (the Mann Act).
In sentencing, Judge Ann Donnelly said Kelly had used his “minions” to “captivate young fans.”
The singer, who denied all charges and plans to appeal his 30-year prison sentence, was found guilty on all nine counts after a six-week trial in Brooklyn and appeared unresponsive to the verdict.