OJ Simpson died with a final insult to his victims’ families: A mystery over his money which they will have to pay to unravel.
The 76-year-old took his debt to the family of Ron Goldman and to his own children to the grave unpaid, meaning they will have to employ lawyers once more to try to prise cash out of his estate — if there is any.
In fact his finances, The Post learned, are rife with unfulfilled obligations and backed by a secretive network of LLCs.
Simpson, 76, was found liable in 1997 for $33.5 million in civil judgments for the killings of Ron Goldman and ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson —an amount that grew with interest to more than $100 million.
Before his death, Simpson had only paid out $132,849.53 to the Goldman family, according to Nevada court records.
Simpson was also dogged by both federal and California state tax liens that went back to at least 2002, public records show.
One of his biggest debts was $1,471,880 for unpaid California state taxes, public records show; the total he left unpaid to state and federal authorities is as high as $5,227,519.
He left no property in his name and appears to have been living in a house rented by his oldest daughter, Arielle, 55, before his death.
But Page Six revealed Friday that he demanded to be paid in cash for lucrative memorabilia signings and even to play golf with fans, leading to questions over where it is now.
Simpson had myriad limited liability companies that were set up by his longtime lawyer Leroy “Skip” Taft, shortly before his own death in 2022.
A total of nine companies whose names included Orenthal Productions, Sydney Brooke Inc., Pigskins Inc., and Bruiser Enterprises were reactivated in June 2022, months after he was granted early release from parole.
Another limited liability company, Rockinghorse Enterprises LLC, was named after North Rockingham Avenue, his former Brentwood estate.
The network of LLCs may well point to his estate being similarly complicated, making it time-consuming and expensive for the Goldmans to sue.
The Goldmans and Simpson’s children by his marriage to their murdered mother Nicole Brown — Sydney, 38, and Justin 35 — would split the proceeds of any money found towards the $100m they are owed.
“The first challenge is to find the wealth,” Victoria Haneman, the professor of trusts and estates at Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska, told The Post.
“The other challenge is to attack the structure. Very wealthy people set up complicated structures that are not subject to probate.”
If he held onto wealth before his death, Simpson kept it under wraps. “He had a little bit of money,” a Vegas pal told The Post.
“We would go out for dinner and he’d chip in for the meal. He didn’t expect other people to pay for him. But he was not picking up tabs the way you imagine he used to.”
But his spending may have been selective. According to Las Vegas Review Journal, “he was a generous tipper.”
In fact, an old friend of Simpson told The Post, “I know he was getting quite a bit every year from his NFL pension and the Screen Actor’s Guild. People said he was a millionaire.”
His total annual income from the NFL and SAG pensions was estimated at $300,000 and could not be taken by the Goldmans. The payouts end with his death.
That amount should have funded the good life, but according to a longtime resident of the upscale Canyon Gate Country Club in Las Vegas, Simpson had not paid for his own home on a luxury golf course where one forks over $3,200-a-month rent for a 2,500 square foot home with course access.
“My understanding is that one of his daughters rented a house for him at Canyon Gate,” the resident told The Post.
“People said that she rented it for him because he was supposed to have no money.”
Simpson was also banned from playing golf at the club.
“He golfed for a while and then suddenly he didn’t,” a resident told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “He made members of the club uncomfortable.”
Arnelle Simpson had been a strident supporter of her father, living close to him in Las Vegas. She has a daughter, Alexia, in her early 20s who is Simpson’s oldest grandchild.
His son Jason, 53, from his first marriage was also close to the disgraced NFL great, greeting OJ when he arrived home after the famous white Bronco chase and standing beside him when he walked out of court after his shock acquittal.
Jason appears to live in Atlanta, Georgia. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2016 that he is a chef who lives a private life.
He and Arnelle’s mother, his high-school sweetheart Marguerite Whitley were married from 1967 to 1979. She is now remarried and lives in suburban Fresno, California.
During a 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters, she maintained that Simpson was never physically abusive, saying, “He “would have got a frying pan upside the head,” and that she did not believe Simpson had murdered his estranged wife and her friend.
Simpson’s LLC names hint at a reconciliation with his daughter Sydney, while the statement about his death said all his children were with him before his death from prostate cancer.
Sydney and her brother Justin Ryan Simpson, 35, both born to Nicole, live in the Tampa, Florida, area where they work in real estate.
Justin is father to Simpson’s youngest granddaughter, 2-year-old Lana, with his partner Alycia Browne.