New Home for Lawyer Who Owned Smurfs Rights Is Currently NY Jail
A lawyer who once owned the North American rights to the Smurfs plans to represent himself against criminal charges that he tried to extort as much as $11 million from his son-in-law.
The lawyer, 74-year-old Stuart Ross, is from Aventura, Fla., Bloomberg reports, but he is “essentially homeless and on the brink of divorce,” the New York Daily News says. Ross is currently incarcerated in a New York jail, and his lawyer, Matthew Myers, said he doesn’t think he can make the $200,000 bail, Bloomberg says.
“He made some bad investments,” Myers said.
Ross also has leukemia and is in alcohol rehabilitation, he and Myers told a judge on Monday. Ross is accused of seeking $5.5 million to $11 million to stay away from his daughter and stop harassing his son-in-law, Blackstone Group senior managing director David Blitzer, the stories say.
The New York Daily News says Ross made millions bringing the Smurfs to the United States in the 1980s, but he no longer has the rights.
