Money

James Franco's former manager was robbing the actor blind for nearly a decade by skimming commissions and running up huge tabs on Franco's credit card ... this according to a lawsuit filed by the manager's own firm.

Back in 2006 ... Miles Levy allegedly told his partners at James Levy Management that Franco no longer wanted to pay their 15% fee, and instead would only fork over 10%. The firm agreed to the discount, but according to the suit ... Levy continued to charge Franco 15% and just pocketed the 5% for himself.

Miles had some help pulling this off -- according to the docs ... prominent celeb accounting firm Tanner Mainstain helped him set up a shell company to deposit the siphoned cash. Tanner Mainstain also allegedly collected fees for their dirty work.

According to the suit ... Miles was also digging into Franco's pocket by using the actor's credit card to make personal purchases. He allegedly ran up a six-figure balance.

Roger Rodas -- who died with Paul Walker in a fiery car crash -- left his children lots of financial security ... in the form of a $1 million life insurance policy.

Rodas' kids are 10 and 12. Their mom, Kristine Rodas, has petitioned for a guardianship ... presumably so she can manage the money on behalf of her children.

There are tinges of sadness in the legal docs. Kristine says she's the children's closest adult relative and their relationship is "loving."

We don't know for sure if Justin Bieber was stoned Sunday ... who are we kidding, he dropped more than $240 on fast Mexican food -- of course he was.

Justin and crew rolled up to celebrity hotspot Pinches Tacos on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood on his way to Coachella and dropped $185 on a South of the boarder feast, consisting of:

-- 13 steak tacos
-- 9 chicken tostadas
-- 8 chicken tacos
-- 3 taco plates
-- 1 steak burrito
-- 1 chicken burrito
-- 4 orders of chips and salsa
-- 10 bottles of water
-- 9 Mexican sodas

Justin waited in a Mercedes van while someone from his crew picked up the grub and left a $55 tip, on Justin's credit card.

Ese Pinches Bieber.

Journalist and TV host Giselle Fernandez just lost 180 pounds ... by dumping her husband after 11 years of marriage ... and according to legal docs, she's quick to point out ... she makes a fortune.

52-year-old Fernandez filed for legal separation from business exec John Farrand on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences.

And this is interesting ... Giselle is NOT asking for spousal support, saying in her docs, "I was the breadwinner." Giselle claims she typically works 40 hours a week and earns an impressive $41,667 per month.

Other fun stuff -- Fernandez claims she spends $6,500 a month on rent and $2,000 on GROCERIES.

The couple was married at their Beverly Hills home back in November 2002. They have a 7-year-old daughter, and Giselle wants joint custody.

In addition to "Access Hollywood," Fernandez guest anchored for "CBS Early Show," "CBS Evening News," "NBC Today," "NBC Nightly News," and even appeared on "Dancing with the Stars" (she didn't last long).

MC Hammer says the IRS is shamefully out to get him ... belatedly demanding penalties on taxes he fully paid 7 years ago.

Hammer famously went belly up in 1996 -- declaring bankruptcy and in the process losing everything, including his master recordings and most worldly possession.

Hammer got out from under his debt by anteing up more than $7 mil in 2007, and that amount included more than $1.4 million to the IRS.

Now -- 7 years later -- hammer says Uncle Sam has just demanded another $1.4 mil -- this time for penalties and interest on the delinquent 1996 taxes.

Hammer thinks it's a travesty, and has filed legal docs asking a judge to block the IRS from collecting because of basic principles of fairness.

Flo Rida is no longer a tax fugitive -- the rapper has just settled with Uncle Sam over a $1.2 million tax bill.

The feds filed the tax lien against Flo earlier this year, claiming he owed a total of $1,197,655 in back taxes stemming from the years 2009 - 2011.

It's unclear if Flo paid the full amount -- but whatever he paid, the government was happy ... because it just extinguished the lien ... meaning he's off the hook.

Lisa Vanderpump is trying to make a sexual assault lawsuit go away with money ... problem is, the two sides are a little off -- by around $5 MILLION.

We broke the story ... waitress Karina Bustillos filed suit ... claiming a manager at Vanderpump's restaurant, Villa Blanca tried to kiss her, called her a "c***," and violently grabbed her wrists. Bustillos says she complained to Vanderpump ... who refused to do anything about it.

Bustillos quit ... and filed a $5 million lawsuit for sexual assault and battery.

Vanderpump tells TMZ ... the suit is ridiculous. The woman is an out-of-work actress who has admitted in her deposition she's been fired several times ... once for drinking on the job. And Vanderpump says -- contrary to Bustillos' allegations -- it's already been established Lisa knew nothing about the accusations until the case was filed.

And Vanderpump says the manager in question has NEVER had a complaint filed against him and has worked for her for years. Finally Vanderpump says she fully investigated and there's no evidence the manager did anything wrong.

According to court docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Vanderpump is offering $40,001 -- not exactly the $5 million Bustillos is demanding.

Meek Mill says the Philly P.D. screwed him out of a multi-million dollar shoe contract ... and now he's suing the City of Brotherly Love to get his cash back.

According to the lawsuit, Meek claims his Halloween 2012 arrest was total BS because even though cops claimed they smelled pot in his car ... they ultimately came up with zilch. Meek says he was cuffed for refusing to let cops search -- and he ended up missing a private jet flight to Atlanta.

Meek claims he lost $22k on the cancelled jet and a $39K appearance fee for the A-Town party he missed.

In the docs, he also claims he took a hit in negotiating a $2 million deal with Puma because all the negative pub from the arrest ... forced him to settle for a mere $650K.

Luis Miguel has dodged his responsibility to his kids by hiding behind gates and bodyguards ... playing a cruel game of catch me if you can with his flesh and blood ... according to his baby mama.

Aracely Arambula filed legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- in what has become a 2-year ordeal to serve him with legal docs in their child support war.

Arambula -- a Mexican soap opera star -- claims Miguel is like the Road Runner ... gleefully dodging process servers, most notably in front of a TMZ camera at a 2013 California county fair. Luis claims service wasn't legal, because the guy never came face-to-face with him.

Arambula says she was given an anemic offer of $15K a month in child support for their 2 kids -- ages 5 and 7 -- yet in 2009-10, she says he raked in $24 MILLION for his concert tour alone.

She wants $60K a month minimum, but he went radio silent last year and now he says he's moved from California to Florida so she has no legal right anymore to drag him to court.

Arambula outlines the lengths to which she's tried serving him, only to be thwarted by Luis' massive gates protecting his Bel Air home.

3 Years after Nate Dogg's death, his family is waging war over the sale of the late rapper's Pomona home.

According to court docs -- obtained by TMZ -- the estate administrator agreed to sell the house last month for $340K.

But we're told some family members are trying to stop the deal because the administrator wants to use the money to pay off Nate's debts, leaving them with little ... and they want more.

We broke the story ... Nate's will provided that his 6 kids get the house, but 2 days after his death in March, 2011, the bank moved to foreclose because he'd fallen behind on his mortgage.

Now it's up to a judge whether the sale goes through.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have been thrown into the middle of a nasty lawsuit over who was responsible for paying their "Twilight" bonuses. The suit is boring, but what they scored is interesting.

According to legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Robert was given a $300,000 bonus for the first "Twilight." The sum was supposedly based on box office receipts, which totaled $351 MILLION worldwide.

Now here's the plot twist ... When Robert and Kristen went to the bargaining table for "New Moon" -- aka Twilight 2 -- they either drove a hard bargain or realized they had gotten screwed the first time around. According to the lawsuit, producers agreed to pay each of them $2.5 million for the first "Twilight."

The sequels certainly turned into a cash register for both stars. Pattinson reportedly got $25 million for the 2 installments of "Breaking Dawn" -- plus back-end.

Katherine Heigl claims a major drug store chain is shamelessly using her image to hawk hemorrhoid cream, Rid and all things drug store.

Katherine filed a lawsuit -- obtained by TMZ -- in which she claims she was coming out of Duane Reade in NYC last month, when a paparazzo snapped a pic of her carrying a Duane Reade bag.

Katherine says she was horrified to learn the drug store later tweeted, "Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can't resist shopping #NYC's favorite drugstore."

So now Katherine is gunning for the drug store chain in court, demanding $6 Mil.

And here's the best part. Katherine turns the lawsuit into a resume, saying, "Plaintiff is a highly successful television and motion picture actress, producer and celebrity." It goes on to list her various credits, adding, "Plaintiff continues to be in high demand in the entertainment industry."

And braggie Katie adds, "A recent search for 'Katherine Heigl' on the Google search engine returned over 3.2 million results." And she says she boasts 754,000 Twitter followers.

Katherine also says she'll donate her monetary judgment to the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation which focuses on animal welfare.

Joe and Teresa Giudice will get a clean slate from the bankruptcy judge -- they paid $7,500 to creditors and in the process they'll erase more than $13 MILLION in debts!!!

The docs -- obtained by TMZ -- are shocking. Joe and Teresa lived their lives through smoke and mirrors, having almost no equity in any of their lavish trappings of wealth.

They have a $1.7 million house with only $140K in equity. There are 2 other properties where they have NO equity.

They have a Maserati, an Escalade, a Ford 350 and have NO equity in them. They also have toys -- a Sea-Doo boat, a Kawasaki quad, 2 go carts and other stuff -- no equity.

As for their creditors who will walk away with nothing ... they include 5 banks, all of which loaned the couple more than a million bucks. Wachovia Bank got shafted to the tune of $5.3 MIL.

As we previously reported ... the Giudices are about to get prison time for bank fraud.

Chris Brown's modeling agency is accused of dirty dealing by a model who claims they're using her image without paying her a dime.

Stasiya Maria claims she was invited to a test shoot for Legendary Faces on March 21 that turned into a giant casting call. She says she had no idea what was going on, but played along ... posing for a few pics with other girls.

Maria claims she never signed a release and is furious she's now featured in two Instagram promotional videos the company produced.

Maria's lawyer fired off a letter to the company, demanding it take the videos down ... or she'll sue.

Paris Hilton got screwed in sexy heels ... so she claims in a new lawsuit.

Paris filed a lawsuit against Antebi Footwear Group, claiming she made a deal in 2007 allowing the company to use her name to sell high-end women's heels.

Under the deal Paris was supposed to pull in $720K minimum in royalties but she claims she got less than half.

Now Paris wants more ... more than a million bucks.

Sorry to burst your bubble -- the Illinois man who claimed a $218.6 million lottery jackpot in 2012 tells TMZ, he is NOT giving away his fortune to Internet strangers ... and the Instagram account claiming otherwise is FAKE.

67-year-old Merle Butler tells us, he doesn't even have an Instagram account. He also says it's not the first time someone on the Internet has impersonated him to scam others out of money.

The fake Instagram account went viral over the weekend, promising to mail out $1,000 checks to the first 50 followers. It currently has 112,000. A related account (claiming to be Merle's accountant) is now asking followers to donate $.99 for postage, in case you were born yesterday.