‘UNFORTUNATE MANIPULATION’

Stan Lee’s Estate Settles With Ex-Business Manager in Elder Abuse Case

The settlement doesn’t resolve a legal feud the comic book legend’s estate was having separately with his former attorney, Uvi Litvak.

The estate of Stan Lee has settled a complaint of elder abuse against the comic book legend’s former business manager, Jerardo “Jerry” Olivarez, according to a court document obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. Terms of the deal, filed Monday, were not disclosed. The settlement doesn’t resolve the estate’s battle against Lee’s former attorney, Uvi Litvak, who was similarly accused of exploiting the elderly Lee in the final years of his life. Lee died in 2018, six months after filing against Olivarez and Litvak, who he called in his complaint “unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists.” After gaining power of attorney, according to Lee’s original suit, Olivarez modified his client’s will, fired his personal banker of 26 years, and weaseled money out of his bank accounts, some of which the manager used to buy an $850,000 condominium. In a Wednesday statement, Olivarez’s attorney said, “The genesis of this dispute was the unfortunate manipulation of Stan Lee and his family undertaken by certain individuals—not named in the lawsuit—which was intended to unfairly malign Jerry Olivarez.”