Producer Scott Storch Wanted And In Debt
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 07.18.2008
What a difference a few years make. I guess Timbaland won...
Just a few years ago, Scott Storch was one of the top producers in pop music, living in a $10.5 million mansion on an exclusive Miami island, driving a phalanx of luxury cars and dating the likes of Paris Hilton and Lil Kim.
Nowadays, Storch, is missing in action. He owes more than $500,000 in real estate taxes and had a warrant out for his arrest when he failed to show up in court in a child-support case last month. He has not had a top 10 hit in three years.
He still has his waterfront marble mansion, but his lawyer says Storch is attempting to refinance it after a "catastrophic occurrence this year" resulting from "mismanagement." Storch no longer works with his old manager or publicist. He hasn't talked to either of his children in months.
In 2004, Storch reunited with the child he had fathered 12 years earlier with Bellido. He moved the mother and their son Steven to South Florida: she calls it "one of the happiest times in our lives."
Three years later, the producer began paying for another son, the now 2-year-old Jalen Daniel. Both mothers say Storch was inconsistent but not a deadbeat dad. "Once able to get his attention, he stepped up to the plate and did the right thing across the board," Jalen's mom said.
Storch has paid neither his 2006 nor 2007 real estate taxes. At the start of this year, he stopped paying child support for both his kids and fell into several months of arrears before being sued by both mothers in separate cases.
The producer has left a trail of debt and bad feelings behind him. The big spender developed a reputation for arrogance; many see his failure to care for his offspring, while still tooling around in a Ferrari, as particularly reprehensible. Yet the people who have personal reasons to hate the player don't.
"Scott's not a bad person," says one mother. "I know he loves his son. He's been irresponsible."
Storch hasn't shown up for his court cases, but his lawyer has said he will meet his financial obligations. He paid the money he owed Daniel and the arrest warrant was vacated.
