Alanis Morissette did not begin with a single bank statement proving that millions of dollars were missing. She began with the feeling that something was wrong with her finances.
“Something felt weird,” the 52-year-old singer said on the September 9 episode of Call Her Daddy. Asked how she first became suspicious of former business manager Jonathan Todd Schwartz, Morissette answered, “A woman’s intuition,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
By then, Morissette had changed business managers, and she and her husband, Mario “Souleye” Treadway, had noticed calculations in her finances that did not look right. Morissette repeatedly returned to her new management team asking for more information even though she could not initially identify exactly what she expected them to find.
The investigation eventually uncovered far more than an accounting mistake. Schwartz admitted that he withdrew approximately $4.8 million from Morissette’s accounts without her knowledge or authorization between May 2010 and January 2014. Federal prosecutors said he embezzled approximately $7.2 million from Morissette and other clients before pleading guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud.
Morissette Kept Going Back Until She Got Answers
Morissette remembered repeatedly walking into her new business manager’s office because the numbers still did not make sense to her. “I need more information because something’s up and I don’t know what,” she recalled telling the team. Her visits became frequent enough that someone eventually asked why she was back in the boardroom again.
“I still don’t have the answer yet,” Morissette recalled responding. She brought in financial papers containing inconsistencies, and the team began examining them more closely. One question was whether she regularly spent large amounts of cash, since withdrawals were appearing in her records.
Morissette said she kept pressing rather than accepting an incomplete explanation. She described herself as continuing to “show up” and “stay the course” while the new team investigated what had happened to the money.
Her instincts were eventually backed by the financial records. Schwartz had held a position that gave him extensive access to clients’ accounts while working at GSO Business Management, a Sherman Oaks firm that handled bills, budgets and other financial matters for entertainment and sports figures.
Schwartz Hid the Withdrawals as Personal Expenses
The federal case later established exactly how Schwartz concealed the money taken from Morissette. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, he submitted unauthorized cash withdrawal requests against her accounts and either collected the money himself or had it delivered to him.
Schwartz then caused the withdrawals to be recorded as “sundry/personal expenses” in Morissette’s accounting records. Her bank statements were sent to the management company rather than directly to her, and prosecutors said Schwartz provided false information that was used in the monthly statements clients received.
When Morissette confronted him about the missing money, Schwartz told her it had been invested in illegal marijuana grow businesses. He later admitted that explanation was false.
The theft from Morissette was part of approximately $7.2 million Schwartz admitted taking from several clients. He also acknowledged failing to report the stolen money as income to the IRS and owing more than $1.7 million in federal taxes connected to the scheme.
Schwartz pleaded guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return. On May 3, 2017, U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee sentenced him to six years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $8,657,268 in restitution. Prosecutors said the clients affected by his crimes were reimbursed through insurance carriers and GSO.
Morissette Faced Schwartz in Court at His Sentencing
Morissette appeared in court when Schwartz was sentenced and delivered a victim impact statement. She described the theft as “long, drawn-out, calculated and sinister” and told Gee that Schwartz had taken more than money from her. For a period, she said, the financial damage interfered with plans to devote more of her life to her family and causes important to her.
On Call Her Daddy, Morissette also remembered her reaction to seeing a woman presiding over the case. She told host Alex Cooper that she had worried about what she described as bias against wealth, against women and against women trusting what they know.
“I just looked right at her,” Morissette said of Gee. She described the experience as “quite corrective” after the years surrounding Schwartz’s betrayal and the process of getting the case into court.
Schwartz has since spoken publicly about stealing from his clients. On the August 13 episode of Chatter That Matters, he discussed his crimes, addiction and the damage he caused while managing other people’s finances.
He said he has not spoken to Morissette since his sentencing because he believes contacting her could cause further harm. Schwartz called her “an incredibly wonderful client” and acknowledged that he violated his fiduciary responsibility to her. He said that if she ever agreed to speak with him again, he would want to apologize for the pain he caused and would understand if she could not forgive him.