During an appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” former teen star Kenan Thompson opened up about financial struggles growing up.
Thompson sat down with the morning show and talked about a “dirty” accountant that stole $1.5 million from him between 1999 and 2000.
“I’ve been blessed to continue working, but I had a bad accountant, and it came to the light around ’99, around 2000, which was really bad timing ’cause that’s right when I left my consistent gig. So, then I went into being an adult actor for hire, and that is very hit and miss,” the comedian said.
He met the accountant through his mother, and he had given him power of attorney, which allowed the accountant to act on his behalf legally.
“We gave that dude power of attorney when we shouldn’t have. I was a kid and my mom was trying to protect me,” Thompson mentioned. “He had helped her out of her and my dad’s tax situations. So, she thought she could trust him, but she could trust him with $30,000 to $50,000 issues, but when it’s a million dollars on the table, you never know what people gonna turn into. And apparently, he turned into a demon.”
After the incident, Thompson moved to Los Angeles with his new hunger for success. He landed jobs on “Felicity” and “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” However, he was still struggling when it came to money.
“I was still broke, like just enough money for the rent kind of thing. The accountant was dirty, and I ended up not letting that be the end all of what my life is gonna be,” he expressed.
Thompson says he has yet to retrieve the $1.5 million from the accountant. He eventually sued the accountant.
“I sued him for years and ended up winning, but I sued him because the IRS came after me, and they were like, ‘You haven’t paid your taxes all this time.’ I’m like, ‘Well, that’s what he was supposed to be doing. And he went and ran. Don’t y’all see like, I ain’t got the money?’” Thompson recalled. “So, I got my settlement and it’s on that person now, but as far as me getting that money back, I knew it as soon as it happened — I’m like, ‘I ain’t never gonna see that money. I might as well just get back and start from scratch and just forget about it. If it comes back, great.’ It has yet to, but I’ve been blessed in so many other ways, I’ll take those life lessons and just learn from ’em.”
