Despite selling around 30million albums the lawyer for R Kelly claimed the singer was struggling to raise $100,000 in bail money
R KELLY is said to have been worth around £115million at the height of his fame but that fortune appears to have been lost and is now struggling to raise his bail money.
Robert Kelly is one of America’s biggest selling music artists of all time having sold more than 30million albums but is thought now to have around £764,000.
In 1998 he released the album R which featured I’m Your Angel, a duet with Celine Dion, which sold more than 7m copies alone.
In arguing for bail within the singer's ability to pay, Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg told the Chicago judge on Friday that Kelly wasn't wealthy despite decades of success creating hit songs.
The lawyer blamed “mismanagement”, bad contracts, “hangers-on” and other issues for his client's financial problems.
Kelly was charged with ten counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, three were minors.
At the height of his fame he was said to have amassed a fortune of $150m but this has plummeted in recent years and now he is said to have just $1m.
The I Believe I Can Fly singer owes more than $169,000 (£129,000) in unpaid child support to his ex-wife, according to court documents seen by which were dated February 6.
On January 8 a court ordered Kelly to make a monthly payment of $20,833 (£15,900) but according to the court documents Kelly never showed up to the hearing.
Blew so much money, pop so many bottles
R Kelly in his song I Admit
A judge ordered him to pay $161,663 (£123,693) by March 6 to avoid being held in contempt of court.
Kelly is also said to owe more than $166,000 (£127,000) in unpaid rent on his Chicago studio.
A judge signed an eviction order in January, according to court documents, saying the singer had to move out on or before January 21.
Kelly though was reportedly still in the studio before he turned himself in on Friday.
The landlord, Midwest Commercial Funding LLC, initially began the eviction process in July 2018, saying Kelly had defaulted on the lease by failing to pay more than $79,000 (£60,500) in rent but the payment continued to pile up.
Kelly also owes more than $31,000 (£23,700) to a Georgia property management company, according to court papers seen by the .
The money is owed for overdue rent payments on two homes in Atlanta.
His supposed party lifestyle will have also seen his fortune dwindle.
He released a 19-minute song I Admit in July 2018 responding to various allegations and explaining how he was now a “broke ass legend”.
The lyrics contain the line: “Blew so much money, pop so many bottles.”
Elsewhere he sang: “Where the f**k is my money?” but admitted he used to “go to strip clubs every week”.
Kelly also refers to dabbling with drugs, singing he had “been tempted” by them.
Where the f**k is my money?
R Kelly
He also appears to admit to making bad business decisions saying he hired “crooked ass people” and that despite writing all is own music he didn’t own it having unknowingly signed the publishing rights away.
Some of that money will also have been eaten up with legal bills fighting law suits.
It is also claimed he has been sued by a number of women who have accused him of having sex with them while they were underage.
has reported that in most cases they were settled out of court for undisclosed sums.
In 1996, Kelly and members of his entourage were involved in a fight at a health club in Louisiana.
Kelly was found guilty of battery and reached a settlement in a lawsuit with the victim who is said to have needed 110 stitches after the fight.
The same year Tiffany Hawkins claimed Kelly had sexual relations with her when she was just 15 and sued the singer for $10m.
He settled the lawsuit a year later for $250,000.
In 2001, Tracy Sampson, who was working as an intern at Epic Records claimed she had been in an abusive sexual relationship with him when she was 17.
At the time she told the : “He often tried to control every aspect of my life, including who I would see and where I would go.”
The case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
A number of with the cases being settled out of court after paying an undisclosed sum of money.
Kelly's record label, RCA, and its parent company Sony "dissolved" their relationship with the singer in January 2019, according to .
