Kathy Ireland, a lifelong Santa Barbara resident who rose to fame as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model before building a global licensing empire, has sued her former business managers for allegedly plundering her multimillion-dollar fortune.
According to the lawsuit filed March 9 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, the long-running deception left Ireland in “massive debt” with no retirement savings, and forced the sale of her family home. The complaint claims her managers ― married Hollywood couple Jason Winters and Erik Sterling, who operated kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW) for more than 30 years ― are liable for damages “in the tens of millions of dollars, if not exceeding $100 million.”
“This case is about trust betrayed on a staggering and unconscionable scale,” states the lawsuit filed on behalf of Ireland and her family by Santa Barbara attorney Jared M. Katz with the law firm Mullen & Henzell. “Defendants have not merely mismanaged money. They had consolidated control over Kathy and [husband Greg Olsen] through a tightly interwoven network of personal and corporate relationships designed to obscure accountability.”…