The Harrison family, owners of a pawn shop in Las Vegas called Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, became well-known after their show Gold & Silver Pawn Shop: The Family Business debuted on the History Channel in 2009. Now, the family is in turmoil, and Rick Harrison, the star of the show, is embroiled in a legal battle with his 81-year-old mother Joanne Harrison. According to her mother, Rick took advantage of her when she was recovering from a coma by forcing her to give up controlling ownership of the company while she was unconscious.
Now, however, Joanne has brought a restraining order action against her husband Rick because he is attempting to sell off the family’s assets for his own profit. According to the mother’s lawsuit, she wants to prevent her son from “siphoning” off valuables belonging to the family – not him.
It was reported that Rick had been making monthly payments to his mother totaling $25,000 per month for years. However, the lawsuit claims that those payments suddenly stopped in 2020. Now the Pawn Stars matriarch is prepared to sue her son to prevent him from selling family assets on the market. The temporary restraining order would prohibit her son from stopping money transfers, hiding or transferring funds, or taking other measures that might jeopardize her ownership of the Harrison family businesses, according To KSN.com
According to reports, the family has been squabbling behind the scenes for months. Lawyers working with Harrison were attempting to assist Joanne in restricting Rick’s access to the family trust as far back as September of last year.
Rick Harrison was unaware of his mother’s lawsuit against him, according to a KSN.com interview. Rick believes that someone else is pulling the strings, and it isn’t really his mother who is attempting to prevent him from selling off her family assets.
Rick and Jill Harrison’s 57-year-old son, “I believe my mother is being controlled by individuals who are not looking out for her best interests,” Rick said. “I’ve tried to contact her many times over the last several months, but I’m unable to do so.” According to him, one of the firms she is suing is entirely owned by his mother.
According to court papers, Gold & Silver Pawn Shop took a significant hit during the pandemic, similar to many other businesses in America that desperately desired then-President Trump to do something to help the economy — instead he shut it down.
These years saw the following revenue for the Harrison family firm.
2017: $1.2 million
2018: $1.6 million
2019: $1.3 million
2020: $37,406
Joanne’s request for a temporary restraining order reads, “While Rick enjoys his comfortable life as a celebrity firmly in control of all the family businesses and finances, Joanne is left frightened, and unsure of if she will have enough resources to pay for her considerable medical and personal expenses each month. More specifically, Joanne is 81 years old and suffers from a number of health issues that require twenty-four-hour care and supervision. If Rick were to again arbitrarily cut off Joanne’s monthly income, it would place Joanne at immediate and serious risk of irreparable medical harm, which by definition cannot be remedied by money damages at the conclusion of this litigation.”
