On Friday, Commissioner Laura Hymowitz granted a restraining order against Stan Lee’s onetime business manager Keya Morgan. Morgan has been accused of fraud, abuse, and embezzlement against the 95 year-old which included artwork, cash and other assets valued at over $5 million. Morgan is forbidden from coming closer than 100 feet to the legend and cannot contact him through any other means for three years. He is also barred from contacting or coming near Lee’s daughter J.C. Lee, or his brother Larry Lieber.
Morgan is facing a misdemeanor charge for making a fraudulent 911 call claiming that Lee was being held at gunpoint when fired security guards showed up to pick up their last paychecks. In June, Lee was reported missing, after Morgan moved him, without alerting anyone, to an apartment. Lee’s attorney Jonathan Freund stated that Lee and security guards saw Morgan leaving Lee’s residents with stolen artwork and alleged that he has stolen cash that had been paid to Lee for his signatures. Yet as recently as April, Morgan accompanied Lee to the premiere of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
At 95, Lee’s health is understandably deteriorating, exacerbated by the death of his wife Joan, last year. He has recently announced that he would no longer conduct public autograph signings and even the number of signings he does at home has dropped to ten or fewer a day. Fans have grown concerned with the erratic events surrounding Lee over the last year or so. He was accused by former nurses of sexual harassment, which Lee attested was a blackmail scheme. He took to Twitter to declare that his other social media outlets had been hacked. He filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the company he helped found, Pow! Entertainment, for stealing his name and likeness, which he later dropped and once more began working with them again. He filed another lawsuit, which is still pending, against former publicist Jerry Olivarez who is alleged to have drained $1.4 million from Lee’s bank account. It has also been widely reported that Lee’s relationship with his daughter J.C. is strained and that she is known for demanding money from her father and mother when she was alive.
In a phone call to Variety, following the issuing of the restraining order, Morgan said:
“I dare them to show one single penny that I’ve ever embezzled out of Stan’s bank accounts or anything. Stan has never called the police on me. Stan has never asked me not to call him. Stan has never asked me to leave his house… I’d like to know a single thing I’ve done that has been wrong, other than showing love, kindness and compassion.”
He then added, “I know the daughter is behind it.”
