Faith Evans Ordered to Pay Nearly $14 Million From Biggie's Estate as Barrow's Lawyer Blasts Her 'Misbehavior'

"Hopefully she will [pay] and, equally important, stop fighting the inevitable result properly planned by Mama Wallace." That was Jay Freiberg, the lawyer for Biggie's longtime manager Wayne Barrow, speaking to Billboard after a Delaware judge told Faith Evans to cut a check worth nearly $14 million. He did not stop there. Freiberg said the order "continues the Chancellor's decisions recognizing Faith Evans' misbehavior" in running the company that controls The Notorious B.I.G.'s rights since his mother died.

Those are strong words from the side that just won. Evans' attorney declined to comment to Billboard, and as of this writing she had not publicly addressed the ruling or announced an appeal.

$12.5 million versus $48,000

The fight came down to one date. Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mother, died on Feb. 21, 2025, and left her stake in Notorious B.I.G. LLC to her trust, with Barrow as trustee. Evans, who manages the company, argued the trust only became a member on Dec. 12, 2025, and was owed just $48,612 in profits paid out after that, according to Rolling Stone and Music Times.

Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick did not buy it. In her Oct. 27 decision, she ruled the trust is entitled to everything that accrued from the day Voletta died, which adds up to $12,518,336, plus interest compounded quarterly. Barrow's camp says the total lands near $14 million, and his lawyer reportedly told People the payment is due by Nov. 10.

Evans and the company had also asked the court to park the money with the state while a separate family case plays out. The judge said no, writing that the funds "are due to the Trust."

Where the money is going

This is not money Barrow gets to keep. According to Billboard, Voletta's will sends it to the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, the charity she set up in her son's name to help young people with education and mentorship. Billboard reports much of the cash flowed from the estate's 2025 deal with Primary Wave, which bought into Biggie's copyrights and name-and-likeness rights.

Biggie saw this coming

The ruling caps a case Barrow filed in July 2025, after he says Evans refused to recognize the trust's stake. When the court first sided with him in August, the decision opened with a line from "Ten Crack Commandments": "Keep your family and business completely separated." As the August opinion, obtained by People, put it, Biggie's mother and widow did the opposite when they formed the company together in 2007, and this litigation "was perhaps the inevitable result."

The family war is not over

There is still a second front. CJ Wallace, Biggie and Faith's son, is suing Barrow in Pennsylvania, alleging the manager pressured his grandmother into rewriting her estate plan weeks before her death, a change that removed CJ as a trustee and left Barrow in sole control. Barrow denies it and has claimed Evans is behind CJ's case, which her lawyers deny, per Billboard. Those are allegations, and that case is ongoing. The Delaware judge made clear its outcome would not undo what Barrow has already done in good faith for the trust.

So the scoreboard reads like this: Barrow has won both rounds in Delaware, Evans still controls the company, and a judge has put a number on what the trust is owed. As Billboard's weekly legal roundup noted, barring an appeal, this ruling ends the Barrow-Evans case, but the bigger battle over Biggie's legacy could drag on for months or years.

Twenty-nine years after Biggie's death, the people closest to him are still fighting over what he left behind. The next deadline to watch is Nov. 10.

Watch the latest from Rich Motion: Lil Woody Starts WAR With Charleston White And Wack 100. Should Faith Evans pay up and move on, or keep fighting over Biggie's estate? Let us know in the comments, and subscribe at youtube.com/@RichMotion_Media so you don't miss the next one.

Sources: Billboard, Rolling Stone (via VIBE), People, Music Times, Billboard (legal roundup)