Christopher L. Strieter

Nicolas Cage bought two castles, four yachts and a dinosaur skull that turned out to be stolen. Then he owed the IRS about $14 million. He blamed his manager. His manager said Cage signed every check. In the video below, 60 Minutes asks him where the money went. His pet crow starts squawking before he can answer. In 2009 Cage sued his business manager Samuel Levin for $20 million. He said Levin put his money into risky real estate and failed to pay his taxes. Levin fired back in court. He said he had warned Cage he needed to earn $30 million a year just to keep up his lifestyle. His filing listed what Cage bought in 2007 alone: three homes for over $33 million, 22 cars including 9 Rolls-Royces, and 47 pieces of art and “exotic” items. Over the years: 15 homes. The castles were in England and Germany. The dinosaur skull cost $276,000 at auction. It had been smuggled out of Mongolia. He gave it back. “I was over-invested in real estate,” Cage says in the video. “It wasn’t because I spent $80 on an octopus. The real estate market crashed and I couldn’t get out in time.” He paid the IRS back. He never filed for bankruptcy. He moved to Las Vegas and worked non-stop, three or four movies a year. “Work was always my guardian angel,” he says. Who was really to blame: the manager who invested the money, or the man who signed every check?