Nilsson was blindsided when he and other clients of business manager Cindy Sims discovered in 1991 she had been taking their money. She eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of grand theft, serving two years in state prison before being paroled this past June.

“We went to bed one night a financially secure family of eight and woke up the next morning with $300 in our checking account,” Nilsson wrote in a letter filed in court. According to Nilsson’s letter, Sims even took foreclosure notices off his home so he wouldn’t know.

A sentencing report says Sims claimed she deceived other clients by taking money to help keep Nilsson and his company from going under, fearing that failure might lead him to suicide. Nilsson wrote that he thought he was worth $5 million, only to find out he was virtually penniless.

“I’m scared,” Nilsson wrote in the letter. “I never believed this could happen. It was my greatest fear growing up and it’s still my greatest fear.”

– James Bates, Los Angeles Times
In The End, Only Creditors Talked To Nilsson