Courtney Love goes after Kurt Cobain 'looters'

Courtney Love says that the people responsible for handling Kurt Cobain's estate have lost all the money the late singer left her and daughter Frances Bean, and that figure could total over $500 million.

A team of investigators, forensic accountants and lawyers hired by Love discovered that Cobain's estate had been raided of more than $30 million cash and up to $500 million in real estate.

Courtney Love's attorney, Rhonda J. Holmes, who is working to recover the assets, told the New York Post, "I have never seen such greed and moral turpitude. This case is going to make Bernard Madoff look warm and fuzzy." (Madoff is the disgraced US financier who is facing 150 years in prison for defrauding clients for $65 billion.)

"We will be filing civil cases...within the next 30 days," said Holmes. "There are many, many millions missing. We've only been able to track down $30 million, but there is more. And then there is the real estate."

Phony bank accounts set up

According to Holmes, bank accounts using Cobain, Love and Frances Bean's Social Security numbers were used to buy and sell real estate throughout the US.

"There is now a web of homes which were bought, flipped and used to launder money," Holmes said. "Any of the property we can get back will be donated to people who have lost their homes in foreclosures."

Love was in the dark

Holmes said Love had no idea the money was missing until it was too late. "It's no secret she struggled with substance abuse issues," said Holmes, "but in the last year she's taken a more serious approach to sobriety, and started noticing things were wrong.

"We are also working with local and federal authorities," Holmes said. "When Mr. Cobain died in 1994, he left his enormously wealthy estate behind for the benefit of his mother, two sisters, a brother, his wife and young daughter. Many of those [involved with] the estate's coffers mismanaged, stole and outright looted it shamelessly."