Jonathan Schwartz
The very man put in charge of keeping her money safe, business manager Jonathan Todd Schwartz, was sentenced on May 3, 2017 to six years in prison for having had one hand in Alanis Morissette‘s pocket, robbing the performer of $5 million. Schwartz also took money from several other unnamed clients.
The Canadian singer filed a complaint last year with the Los Angeles County Superior Court against Schwartz and GSO Business Management for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, fraud and negligence.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee handed Schwartz a sentence of 72 months, or six years. The sentence was even more than the 63 months that the Assistant U.S. Attorney, Renee Katzenstein, had asked for. Judge Gee also ordered Schwartz to pay $8.6 million in restitution.
The acts came to be known during a review of financial records by a new business manager the Jagged Little Pill singer had hired. The lawsuit stated that records show cash had been taken from the singer’s accounts and transferred to Jonathan Schwartz of GSO Business Management at least 116 times between 2010-2014.
Schwartz had failed to deliver requested documentation for the transfers and finally gave the reasoning that the money had been invested by Morissette in “one or more illegal marijuana ‘grow’ businesses,” which she denied.
Alanis Morissette (via her Facebook page)
Morissette’s suit also stated that “defendants concealed these distributions from Morissette, convincing her that she was in tremendous financial shape when, in fact, they were draining her assets and leading her on a road that could have led to financial ruin.”
“When she asked him if she was over budget, he would insist that things were ‘fine,’ that she had ‘nothing to worry about,’ and that she and her future grandkids were ‘set for life.’” The complaint also claimed Schwartz convinced the singer to turn down performance offers. “His reasoning was always that she didn’t need to work so hard, because she was so financially secure.”
In January, Schwartz reached a plea agreement, admitting that he had stolen the funds from Morissette and others. He was formally charged with wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
Schwartz also finds himself the target of another lawsuit, this one by his former employer, GSO. The company filed its own suit, asking that Schwartz be expelled as a member of the LLC and forced to repay the $558,000 cash advance the company had given him. Apparently, he “was burning through money to sustain a lavish lifestyle” according to the GSO suit. Investigations painted a picture of $75,000 gambling debts, a $50,000 luxury trip to Bora Bora and a substantial amount of unpaid taxes.
On April 11 of this year, Schwartz wrote an open letter in The Hollywood Reporter that read in part: “I used to have it all. How did I end up throwing it all away?
“I lived a double life since no one other than my bookie knew I had this ‘dark’ side. At first, I ‘borrowed’ a little from clients, with the hopes that I would pay them back if I won that night’s bet. That snowballed, and as I kept losing, I kept stealing. By seeing how pathetic I had become, I finally got the courage to ask for help.
“Please use me as an example of what can go disastrously wrong when you start down the wrong path. Please, please follow a different path.”
Morissette followed up with a statement of her own to THR: “I would be apprehensive to believe any words that come out of Jonathan Schwartz’s mouth.”
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