Johnny Depp Slams New Foreclosure Threat in Fight Over His Lost Fortune

"We will move for sanctions for this latest publicity stunt," Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman tells PEOPLE

Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Johnny Depp has no plans to move out of the five homes his former business managers are threatening to take away from him.

The Murder on the Orient Express star’s former managers at The Management Group (TMG) filed a motion Monday to foreclose on five of his properties in Los Angeles in order to cover a $5 million loan the company says it gave him in 2012 to cover a City National Bank loan.

“TMG agreed to come to the aid of its long-time client,” says the complaint, according to Deadline. “The idea behind this arrangement, which was designed to save Depp from a public and devastating financial collapse, was that Depp would pay TMG what TMG was required to pay CNB under the loan.”

Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman told PEOPLE, “Today’s improper foreclosure action is the latest of the Mandels’ efforts to intimidate Mr. Depp into dropping his lawsuit.”

Asked whether TMG will get Depp’s homes, Waldman added, “Of course not, and they know it. We will move for sanctions for this latest publicity stunt.”

TMG claims it took out the loan to cover Depp’s debt and save him from bankruptcy. His former managers also allege that the five houses included in Monday’s motion were used as collateral for the loan, and since Depp has stopped making payments, they want to sell the houses.

“At least at the time, Depp and his sister, personal manager, and the president of his production company, (Elisa Christi) Dembrowski, were very grateful to TMG for coming to Depp’s aid and helping him to avoid a public financial collapse,” says the complaint.

The threat of foreclosure is just the latest exchange in what has become a bitter back-and-forth between the actor and his former managers, who he claims mismanaged the $650 million he’s made in the last two decades to the point of depletion.

Depp sued TMG in February for $25 million in a fraud lawsuit, in which he claimed that the firm was trying to foreclose on his primary residence. “As a result of years of gross mismanagement and sometimes outright fraud, Mr. Depp lost tens of millions of dollars and has been forced to dispose of significant assets to pay for TMG’s self-dealing and gross misconduct,” read the complaint.

“In essence, TMG treated Mr. Depp’s income as their own, available to either TMG or third parties to draw upon as desired,” the filing continued.

Waldman notes that after Depp filed his lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported that TMG was facing separate probes by the US Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service and the SEC.

TMG later filed a cross-complaint against Depp, claiming the actor lived an “ultra-extravagant lifestyle that often knowingly cost [him] in excess of $2 million per month to maintain, which he simply could not afford.”

A judge ultimately ruled that Depp’s personal spending habits are not currently relevant in his ongoing legal battle.

Moving forward, a judge will decide whether or not to sign off on the foreclosure.