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Former “It’s A Different World” actor Darryl M. Bell (who played “Dwayne Wayne’s” friend, “Ron Johnson”) was once sued by his family for mismanaging his late father’s business.

In case you didn’t know, Darryl comes from a wealthy family and his father, the late Travers Bell Jr., became the first founder of a Black-owned member firm of the New York Stock Exchange in 1971. With only $175K in capital, he developed Daniels & Bell Inc., a securities firm on Wall Street that was worth nearly 15 million by the time of his passing in 1988, per ILOSM.

Travers was also a major shareholder in Freedom National Bank and Cocoline Chocolate Co. (the company that made chocolate chips for Nabisco).

When Travers passed away at the age of 46 from a heart attack, he left his multi-million dollar business to his son Darryl. However, Darryl ended up losing most of his dad’s millions due to inexperience. As such, his father’s widow and two of his aunts sued him for mishandling the funds.

A Superior Court probate judge in Morris County, N.J. eventually ruled that Bell’s lack of business skills destroyed the multimillion estate left by his father, rather than wrongdoing as charged in a lawsuit.

After it was all said and done, “Darryl’s father’s business plummeted from a net worth of $14.9 million to $1 million. The business owed several debtors, including the IRS, which had a $2.3million stake in the estate at that time,” according to the report.

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(Photo Credit: YouTube)