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Britney Spears accuses former business manager of being involved in setting up conservatorship
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 4 July 2022
Britney Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart has filed new legal papers accusing the company that formerly worked as his client’s business manager – Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group – of being directly involved in setting up and then benefitting from the conservatorship that oversaw the star’s career and personal life from 2008 until last year.
Tri Star was hired by Spears’ father Jamie in 2008 and continued to manage the singer’s business affairs until October 2020, when the company resigned from its position.
Rosengart now alleges that Tri Star – and in particular its founder Lou Taylor and Services Director Robin Greenhill – were directly involved in setting up the conservatorship with Jamie Spears. He also claims that it benefitted from the arrangement to the tune of $18 million and used its association with Britney to build its wider business.
“Tri Star, Lou Taylor and Robin Greenhill have all denied that Tri Star was involved in the creation of the conservatorship”, says the filing, but – it then insists – various claims that “at the time the conservatorship … was established by this court in early 2008, Tri Star had no role in Ms Spears’ affairs … are false”.
The lawyer also includes emails allegedly showing that Taylor had originally pushed to become co-conservator alongside Jamie Spears, and that – while the conservatorship was still being considered in court in early 2008 – she had expressed concern that the judge hearing the case “will not give Jamie the power to administer psychotropic drugs”.
In response, Tri Star’s attorney Scott Edelman said on Saturday: “This is materially misleading. As all the evidence makes abundantly clear, the conservatorship was set up on the recommendation of legal counsel, not Tri Star, and approved by the court for more than twelve years”.
“In fact”, Edelman added, “Tri Star was not even the business manager for the conservatorship when it was established. Cherry-picked excerpts from emails cannot change the facts, which is why this nonsense will all end once and for all when records are unsealed”.
In an exposé by the New York Times last year, Tri Star was also accused of being involved in placing surveillance devices in Britney Spears’ bedroom. The company also denies that allegation and legal action over the claim continues.
Britney moved to have her conservatorship ended last year, after being allowed to hire a lawyer of her choice for the first time since the legal guardianship had been put in place. Her father was suspended as her conservator in September and the whole arrangement was then terminated in November.
