Yeah, so last week when 41 year old Scottie Pippen announced he was returning to the NBA after three years of retirement, I thought to myself, "somethings up" and I was right. Barely a week after making his announcement, the creditors are lining up to get the money.
The Missouri Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling from last year in St. Louis County in which a judge agreed that Pippen owed U.S. Bank about $5.021 million in principal, interest and attorney fees from a dispute over a private jet and company Pippen once owned.
Pippen said the charter-plane issue is one of many poor business decisions that were made primarily by a former agent, whom he blames for causing him to lose about $27 million in bad investments and questionable accounting. Pippen sued his former law firm in 2005, claiming he had been swindled, but he lost the case.
In terms of the plane, court documents claimed Pippen was using charter planes so often in 2001, when he was playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, that a pilot persuaded him to consider buying his own jet. Consequently, Pippen and his wife, Larsa, borrowed $4.375 million from an aircraft finance company, JODA LLC, in the St. Louis area.
(Chicago Sun Times)
