Award-winning singer Vanessa Amorosi is taking her mother to court over money she owes her music career.
The 39-year-old star, who has sold more than two million records worldwide, has filed a lawsuit against Joyleen Robinson in the Victorian Supreme Court.
The Absolutely Everybody singer battles her mother over money that she says is owed to her because of her career and property.
In a statement of claims, Ms. Amorosi claims Ms. Robinson engaged in “irresponsible behavior” to deprive her of tour income and license fees.
At 17, Ms. Amorosi lived with her mother, a casual cleaning lady, in the family home in Narre Warren and worked at school seven days a week, as evidenced by court documents.
She relied on her mother to manage her finances, who had no substantial assets other than a family home on a mortgage.
In about 1999 Ms. Robinson founded VanJoy Ptd and announced to her daughter that she would arrange for her income to be deposited there to protect her from creditors. Mother and daughter each owned half of the shares.
Ms. Robinson arranged for VanJoy to receive all of Ms. Amorosi’s income and pay for her expenses and was responsible for all decisions and transactions as court records claim.
For 19 years through October 2020, Ms. Robinson reportedly made all decisions on behalf of VanJoy, other businesses and family businesses she founded.
Ms. Amorosi claims that no money owed was paid to her during this time, while her mother received administrative fees and distributed money to the trusts for the benefit of other family members or “unknown persons” without her approval.
Ms. Amorosi claims she asked her mother to take control of VanJoy and the other businesses she started, but Ms. Robinson refused, suggesting that Ms. Amorosi’s husband “was wasting the money.”
In an example of alleged mismanagement in the claim statement, Ms. Amorosi was assigned an income of $ 862,512 in the period 2000-01.
Of that, $ 390,000 went to pay a mortgage on Ms. Amorosi’s house, but the singer claims she never saw the rest of the money.
Ms. Amorosi, who now lives in California, makes the 40-page claim statement with the To take the matter to court at a date yet to be determined.
