Celebrity clients scammed by convicted Ponzi schemer Kenneth I. Starr are being told by a court trustee to pay the felon for his “services.”
Starr, a Bronx accountant who amassed a roster of A-list clients — including director Martin Scorsese, photographer Annie Leibovitz and “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels — was convicted in 2011 of money laundering and wire fraud in a $33 million scheme.
He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy just before he was sentenced to 7¹/₂ years in prison.
Now four years into the bankruptcy proceedings, court-appointed trustee Robert Geltzer has sued roughly 50 Starr clients, claiming they failed to pay bills for Starr’s work.
Some of those sued have settled, and a few, including singer Paul Simon, whom Geltzer accused of owing more than $17,000, got their cases dropped.
But others, including Leibovitz and Planet Hollywood founder Keith Barish, are being hounded for hundreds of thousands of dollars based on Starr’s books, records show.
In court papers, Barish says Geltzer’s claim that he owes $341,000 is “predicated on little more than the dubious records of a fraudster . . . It is not plausible against the backdrop of a Ponzi scheme to allege that the fraudster’s books and records are to simply be believed.”
The invoices cited by Geltzer, which claim Barish was charged $20,000 a month, were never sent to Barish, and he never agreed to pay those amounts, the restaurateur’s lawyers say.
Leibovitz said the trustee’s claims that she owes more than $440,000 were “out of thin air.”
“Research does not reveal any Ponzi schemer who successfully sued his victims for failure to pay the reasonable value of his services, yet, the trustee attempts to do just that,” her lawyers said in legal papers.
Others say they’ve been shaken down, too.
Book collector Susan Jaffee Tane invested $5 million with Starr but pulled her money out in 2008 amid heavy losses. Starr’s bookkeepers continued to bill her for a year afterward, she argues in court papers. But the trustee continues to try to collect $12,000 from Tane.
Geltzer “is guilty of intent to deceive the court,” Tane says in court papers, claiming that upon Starr’s release from prison next year, “he will find his company to be conducting, via the trustee, a continuing criminal enterprise.”
A source called the bankruptcy proceedings under Geltzer little more than “shakedown litigation.”
“It’s disgusting,” the source said.
The trustee gets a percentage of everything he collects. The Bankruptcy Court is seeking to pay out $50 million to dozens of creditors, including actress Uma Thurman, who submitted a claim of nearly $2.5 million.
Some folks are settling, “giving them small amounts of money to go away,” the source said.
Pulitzer-winning author Cormac McCarthy handed over $2,500. The estate of William Salomon, who launched Salomon Brothers, paid out $18,000 just a few weeks after his death.
Geltzer, a Manhattan lawyer, was appointed in 2011 to oversee the Starr bankruptcy proceedings.
In 2013, he made headlines after suing two Catholic schools to recover $45,000 paid by a bankrupt Staten Island couple to cover their kids’ tuition. The judge blasted his claim, calling it “at odds with common sense.”
Geltzer did not return a message seeking comment.
A-listers challenge their ‘debts’ to Starr
Ken Starr’s former clients owe the Ponzi schemer tens of thousands of dollars, claims the trustee overseeing Starr’s bankruptcy case, who has filed lawsuits against the debtors. While some folks settled, others say the “debts” are pure fiction:
Annie Leibovitz, photographer
Owed $440,306.89
Fighting in court
Lorne Michaels, “SNL” creator
Owed $37,500
Fighting in court
Harvey Weinstein, movie producer
Owed $25,000
Fighting in court
Paul Simon, musician
Owed $17,000
Case dropped
Keith Barish, movie producer/Hollywood founder
Owed $341,641.29
Fighting in court
Rob Moore, Former NY Jets wide receiver
Owed $22,924.42
Settled $10,500
Harold Evans/Tina Brown; journalists
Owed $98,410.19
Fighting in court
Cormac McCarthy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Owed $8,756.68
Settled $2,500
Martin Scorsese, director
Owed $600,000
Settled $250,000
William R. Salomon, late Salomon Bros. exec
Owed $48,646.07
Estate settled $18,000
Doug Liman, movie director
Owed $11,902.07
Settled $3,500
Alan Stillman, Smith & Wollensky’s owner/TGI Friday’s founder
Owed $12,562.81
Settled $5,000
Casey Siemaszko, actor
Owed $5,456.25
Discontinued
Linda Wachner, former Warnaco Group CEO
Owed $8,000
Default judgment filed
David Halberstam, late journalist
Owed $21,145.01
Default judgment filed
Jeff Zucker, CNN president
Owed $12,834.63
Proved he owed nothing, no lawsuit filed
Paul Guilfoyle, “CSI” actor
Owed $1,890
Proved he owed nothing, no lawsuit filed