Staff ‘stole Courtney Love’s millions’

Courtney Love is claiming that the fortune left to her by her late husband Kurt Cobain, including at least $30m in cash and $500m in property, has been stolen by employees who were supposed to be managing the inheritance. She says they have drained the Nirvana frontman's estate, using the identities of Cobain, Love and their 16-year-old daughter Frances Bean to buy and sell a network of property across the United States.

Rhonda Holmes, a San Diego lawyer representing Love, said: "Courtney noticed the money was gone when there wasn't any left. It's no secret she struggled with substance-abuse issues, but in the last year she's taken a more serious approach to sobriety and started noticing things were wrong."

As a result, Love hired private investigators and forensic accountants to track down the thieves. She is now preparing to go to court in California.
But instead of keeping whatever property she is able to recoup, she claims
she intends to create a foundation and give it away to Americans whose homes have been repossessed during the recession.

Holmes said: "I have never seen such greed and moral turpitude... We will be filing civil cases within the next 30 days. There are many, many millions missing."

The lawyer claimed that dozens of people had been involved in the serial
thefts. "In some cases," she said, "they wired money to themselves, wired
money to friends, wired money to others, bought anything from cars to homes for themselves, others, stole jewellery... items that were Kurt Cobain's - guitars, photos, memorabilia, you name it."

Holmes said that the stolen money and property had been laundered through the purchases of a network of homes across the US. "This case is going to make Bernie Madoff look warm and fuzzy," she said. "It's a pretty bad scene." ·