Before he died from cancer at the age of 76 earlier this month, O.J. Simpson never voluntarily paid any of the $33.5 million in damages awarded against him for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman–or so the Goldmans say. The former star running back and sports newscaster was famously acquitted of those murders in a 1995 criminal trial, but two years later he was found liable for the deaths in a subsequent civil trial. The civil jury’s award: $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family and $12.5 million in punitive damages to each family.
Last week, Simpson’s long-time attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, rubbed salt into the Goldman family’s wounds. “It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” he initially told reporters after learning that he had been named executor of Simpson’s estate. “And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”
LaVergne, who did not respond to Forbes‘ request for comment, later walked back his comments a step, calling his initial statement “harsh.” But he wasn’t finished talking. During an appearance last Friday on Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show, he dismissively referred to the money owed to the families of Brown and Goldman as “celebrity debt,” saying that expenses and taxes would take priority. Fellow Cuomo guest Geraldo Rivera called that characterization “disrespectful” and Cuomo cut LaVergne’s appearance short.
While his delivery left something to be desired, LaVergne wasn’t entirely wrong in his characterization.
Nevada Law
Simpson’s will was filed with the Clark County District Court in Nevada on April 12, 2024, making it subject to the laws of that state. It provides that after expenses are paid, the remaining assets will pour into the Orenthal Simpson Revocable Living Trust. Notably, both the will and revocable trust were executed in January of this year– Simpson was diagnosed with cancer in 2023. The new documents may have replaced earlier ones. (The lawyers that prepared Simpson’s January documents did not respond to our request for comment.)
While the trust doesn’t have to be filed with the court, LaVergne has said what’s in it goes to Simpson’s children. He has four surviving children from two marriages–two with his first wife and two by Nicole Brown.
But what might be left for the Goldmans–or the Simpson’s children–and will the public ever find out what’s in the estate?
Brooke M. Borg, a Nevada estate planning attorney, notes that when an estate is subject to probate in Nevada, the executor must provide notice to known creditors and publish notification in a newspaper of general circulation for any unknown creditors. In a Nevada probate, creditors have either 60 or 90 days (depending on the estate’s value) to file claims against the estate. This is called the creditor claim period.
Then, the statutory order for paying expenses kicks in. This is what LaVergne got right. By law, the debts and charges of the estate must be paid according to that order. At the top of the list? Expenses of administration (including legal fees and executor’s commissions), funeral expenses, current taxes owed, and the expenses of the last illness. Next come the debts of the deceased—certain debts get statutory preference, such as Medicaid reimbursements, wages owed to employees, mortgages, and other secured debts. If a lien is filed for the money owed to the Brown and Goldman families (in fact, a lien was recorded in 2022 in Nevada), the debt is considered “secured debt” and gets priority over unsecured debts.
This means, says Borg, if there is money to pay the Goldmans’ judgment after payment of any other statutory creditors, it will be paid. “If there is a probate, and there is money to pay all claims…there will be little to nothing the Executor can do to avoid the obligation to pay the Goldman judgment.” And, she notes, the Court is likely to examine very closely any claims of administrative expenses, attorney’s fees, or wages to employees, to ensure they are legitimate, before allowing them. In other words, the Court will make sure these claims are not overinflated in an attempt to blow through the money to pay these expenses so the Goldman judgment is not paid.
If valid, all of these claims and Simpson’s debts will be paid before the beneficiaries—in this case, Simpson’s adult children—receive anything.
Will the public ever know how much is in the estate? Maybe. In Nevada, a creditor (like the Goldmans) can demand a formal accounting from the estate, which must be filed within six months, and annually after that, until the estate is distributed. That accounting will presumably be a part of the public court record.
The Florida Play
After winning that $33.5 million judgment in 1997, the families started pressing Simpson to pay up. The Goldmans forced an auction of Simpson’s Heisman trophy in 1999–it went for $250,000–and they did get that money. The next year Simpson moved to debtor-friendly Florida. (His mansion in swank Brentwood, California had been foreclosed on and sold at auction for $2.6 million in 1997.)
The Sunshine State has several laws on the books that make it difficult for creditors to collect—including what some consider the most favorable homestead exemption in the country. By state law, if you own the home where you live in Florida, your home is protected from all creditors except those holding a mortgage or lien on your residence—typically, your home cannot be liened for a debt that has nothing to do with your home (like a civil judgment resulting from a wrongful death). You can also protect land surrounding your home—up to one-half acre of land from any forced sale if you live in an incorporated area or up to 160 acres in an unincorporated area. (Simpson had moved to Kendall in South Florida, an unincorporated area in Miami-Dade County.)
Notably, for Simpson, under Florida law, many kinds of income, including Social Security benefits, worker’s compensation, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, and veteran’s benefits, are exempt from garnishment from creditors. The state also protects retirement income big-time: pensions, 401(k) plans, IRAs, annuities, and some life insurance policies are also exempt from creditor collection.
That means that Simpson was entitled to hang on to his pensions from the National Football League and the Screen Actors Guild (for his work in movies and television), thought to total $400,000 per year. Florida also has an unlimited wage garnishment exemption for a person claiming to be the head of a family.
In 2006, Simpson negotiated a deal to publish a book called If I Did It, allegedly receiving a hefty advance. The book was exactly as it sounded—a hypothetical confession to the murders of Brown and Goldman. The book caused an uproar and was slated for cancellation before it was released. But Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, took matters into his own hands and sued to control the right to publicity for the book. While Goldman couldn’t claw back the advance, he did win a judgment preventing Simpson from profiting further from the book. Eventually, a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the book to the Goldman family. They also published the book, shrinking the “If” considerably so that its title largely appeared as I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. (It’s still available on Amazon.)
More Legal Problems
In 2007, Simpson was again arrested—this time in Las Vegas, Nevada—and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. This time, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison. He was granted parole and eventually released in 2017 on probation in Nevada. He ultimately made Nevada his home.
In the same year as his Nevada arrest, the state of California named Simpson to its list of top tax offenders. At the time, he owed the state $1.44 million (at the time of his death, he was no longer on the list).
It wasn’t the first time that Simpson had run into tax trouble. In the mid-90s, Simpson reportedly owed the IRS between $600,000 and $700,000 for his 1994-95 income taxes. Additional liens were reportedly also filed for the years 2007 to 2010 and 2011. Typically, the IRS has ten years from the date of the assessment to collect–with the passage of time, the tax liens may have expired.
Uncertain Ending
In 2022, Fred Goldman told THR that he had not seen any money from Simpson. “It’s a ridiculous number, none of which has ever appeared,” Goldman said. “[Simpson] never paid one single penny. Anything that we were able to take was through our own efforts of taking things away from him.”
Attorney David Cook, who represents the Goldman family, has estimated that the judgment owed today, including unpaid interest, is more than $114 million. Cook told Forbes that his client is considering options, including hiring an attorney in Nevada to collect money owed to them.
Nevada might not be the only place the Goldmans need to hire an attorney. Borg notes that if Simpson owned property in other jurisdictions, his estate might be subject to probate in those jurisdictions as well as in Nevada. Those would also be subject to notifications to creditors and beneficiaries, which could take years.
Chasing down those assets could also take some time. There have been reports that Simpson owned interests in at least nine limited liability companies in various jurisdictions. Limited liability companies are often created with layers of ownership intended to obfuscate the ownership and make the assets hard to reach.
Done properly, using a limited liability company or irrevocable trust to shield assets from creditors works. However, Abbey Flaum, a principal at Homrich Berg in Atlanta, stressed that assets stashed in those kinds of entities are typically only exempt if they are transferred before a judgment. Moving money and other assets around can be considered a voidable fraudulent transfer, she says, and still arguably accessed by creditors.
Outside of what might be held in any trusts or companies (if they hold any assets), it doesn’t appear that Simpson’s estate was significant. It’s likely that the families of Goldman and Simpson will collect very little. Fred Goldman has consistently maintained that this was never about the money. Now, he said in a statement to ESPN, with Simpson’s death, “the hope for true accountability has ended.”
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