Rapper and businessman files for bankruptcy days after being told to pay $5m in damages over a sex tape lawsuit

Rapper 50 Cent has filed for bankruptcy in the US, just days after being told by a court to cough up $5m in damages for posting someone else’s sex tape online.

The performer, real name Curtis James Jackson III, reported assets and liabilities in the range of $10m-$50min a filing to a court in Connecticut on Monday, the Wall Street Journal said.

On Friday, 50 Cent was ordered to pay damages to Lastonia Leviston after posting a video of her having sex with her then-boyfriend online in 2008. The rapper recorded a commentary to the 13-minute video, which he apparently obtained from Ms Leviston’s boyfriend.

Ms Leviston said she was horrified when the video went online. "This was something done to me. I didn't have a choice. I would never, ever do this to myself,” she testified.

The rapper’s lawyer William A Brewer III said on Friday that 50 Cent and his legal team were "disappointed in the verdict but very appreciative of the service of the jury and the court”, AP reported.

New York-born 50 Cent rose to fame with his 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which reached number two in the UK charts.

50 Cent, who has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, earned an estimated £100m after taking equity in energy drink company Glaceau, maker of Vitamin Water, which was subsequently sold to Coca-Cola in $4bn deal in 2007.

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