"Pawn Stars" fan favorite Rick Harrison is being sued by his own mother, who claims he's being uncooperative with family business affairs.
Rick, though, argues that his mom is being "manipulated" by outside influences.
Joanne Harrison, 81, claims that she and her late husband, "The Old Man" Richard Harrison, began their Las Vegas pawn shop in 1981. Under the business known as G&S Coin Shop, Richard owned 49 percent of the shares and Joanne owned 51 percent.
"In or around 2000 or 2001, Joanne had been in a coma and was being cared for in the ICU at Valley Hospital," according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "While Joanne was in the hospital recovering from her coma, Rick apparently made her sign over her 51 percent ownership interest in the Pawn Shop to him. Joanne did not know or fully understand what she was allegedly signing at the time."
Joanne alleged that she inherited her late husband's shares in the pawn shop after his 2018 death. Since then, Rick has been bullheaded in bringing her up to speed on business finances, she claims.
"Joanne believes that Rick has failed to issue distributions to Joanne commensurate with her proper equity interest in the Pawn Shop," the suit states.
When Richard passed, he left Rick in charge of his estate.
In the lawsuit, Joanne named Rick, his business entities and the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, which is the site of the hugely popular A&E reality TV show. Joanne alleges that her son engaged in a breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
In court documents, filed on Feb. 24, Joanne goes on to claim her late husband accumulated about $500,000 in silver and $100,000 in cash, but she's been unable to get a proper accounting. Further, she argued that from 2018 to 2020 Rick gave her $25,000 a month for living and medical expenses.
"However, in early 2020, before the pandemic hit, Rick unilaterally and without notice or explanation, reduced Joanne's distributions to approximately $20,000 per month," the suit states. "Then, in or around March 2020, Rick abruptly stopped the monthly distributions to Joanne all together."
Rick's rep said the reality TV star was unaware of the lawsuit until Feb. 25.
"Now that I've seen the Review-Journal story and what is alleged in the lawsuit, I can say that the allegations are false and I think that my 81-year old mother is being manipulated by others for their personal gain," Rick said in an e-mail sent to the newspaper.
Joanne is seeking transparency, damages and injunctions.