Lisa Marie Presley is running a deficit in the truthfulness department, according to court papers filed by her ex-husband, Michael Lockwood.
The papers, filed February 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court, come amid a dispute between Presley and Lockwood about how much Presley should shell out for Lockwood’s legal costs. Lockwood is seeking $460,000 in attorney’s fees and costs. Presley is asking that she pay no more than $40,000.
Earlier this month, Presley filed papers listing her total debt at $16,752, 081.But the papers filed on behalf of Lockwood this week assert that Presley has been “misleading and inaccurate” in her claims and that there are “very good reasons to distrust” her.
“Petitioner, Lisa Marie Presley, claims in her Responsive Declaration that she does not have the ability to pay Respondent, Michael Lockwood’s, fees and costs except for $40,000,” the court papers read. “However, as set forth in this Reply, Petitioner has previously been untruthful with the court about her finances, she has failed to disclose material facts and information about her current finances, and her Responsive Declaration is misleading and inaccurate. Petitioner should be ordered to pay the full amount requested.”
“Here, there are very good reasons to distrust Petitioner. As stated above, in her February 2017 Income and Expense Declaration, Petitioner represented to the Court that her income was $104,000 per month during all almost all of 2016. But, when she produced an application for extension of time to file her 2016 income tax return, she estimated that her estimated tax liability was $1.676 million, which would mean that her monthly tax liability was more than what she told this Court her monthly income was,” the papers continue.
Then, on February 8, 2018, the papers state, Presley’s 2016 income tax return was sent to Lockwood’s attorney, “and it states that her taxable income was over $2.2 million. That is more than $1 million higher than what Petitioner represented her income to be in her February 2017 Income and Expense Declaration.”
According to Lockwood’s filing, Presley filed papers in February 2017 saying that her debts were about $7.8 million, but also stated that same month putting her total debts at about $8.7 million.
“About eight months later, in November 2017, Petitioner served a Schedule of Assets and Debts in which she said that her debts were over $15 million,” the papers state. “There was no explanation for how Petitioner’s debt doubled during that eight-month time period.”
“The Court should distrust and disbelieve Petitioner’s suggestions that her debts exceed her assets as she has not disclosed her assets or their values,” Lockwood’s filing asserts.
Presley and Lockwood, who married in 2006, have twin daughters together.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.