More about mysteriously vanished donations..
Heard's lawyer now says she INTENDED to fulfill the $7m pledge "EVENTUALLY" and she's BLAMING Depp to make her spending millions to defend herself from "false accusations"..
Johnny Depp is accusing ex-wife Amber Heard of pocketing the massive $7m settlement from their divorce and repeatedly lying about giving it all to charity.
The actor's lawyers believe the altruistic gesture was a 'sham' and have spent the past year chasing the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and American Civil Liberties Union to find out how much they actually received from the actress.
The ACLU has so far refused to cooperate with multiple subpoenas but documents produced by the hospital and seen exclusively by DailyMail.com suggest it only received $100,000 – way short of the promised $3.5m 'gift'.
In fact, bosses at the renowned LA kids facility, which cares for sick youngsters regardless of health insurance or their ability to pay, became so concerned they wrote to Heard in June 2019 to ask 'if the pledge will not be fulfilled.'
Depp's lawyers believe the correspondence is the 'smoking gun' that proves Heard was lying when she boasted about the giveaway, not only in media interviews but in recent evidence she gave to a London court.
Giving evidence in a witness statement dated February 26, 2020, Heard stated: 'I remained financially independent from him [Depp] the whole time we were together and the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity.'
This week the Children's Hospital Los Angeles refused to discuss Heard's donations with DailyMail.com, insisting it was a private matter. The ACLU did not respond to our questions.
Heard's attorney, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, would not specify how much her client had given to either charity to date, saying only that she intended to fulfill the $7m pledge 'eventually'.
She blamed Depp for the delay, saying Heard has been forced to spend millions defending herself against 'false accusations' made against her in the ongoing defamation case.
However the Washington Post op-ed was not published until December 2018 and Depp didn't file his complaint until March 2019 – some two and a half years after Heard publicly declared she was giving away her divorce money.
Edward L. White, a certified public accountant, wrote to Tiffanie Al-Nasser, a senior executive at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, enclosing a check for $100,000.
The check was signed John C. Depp II but White said in his letter that the donation was on behalf of Heard and was the first installment of a 'pledged gift of $3,500,000'.
Depp said publicly at the time that, seeing as his wife had pledged her entire $7m divorce settlement to charity, he would go ahead and start paying the money directly to the organizations involved 'in the name of Amber Heard.’
He backed off from sending further money on her behalf, however, when Heard suggested it would breach their deal and challenged him to double the amount.
The hospital's thrilled CEO, Paul Viviano, meanwhile, thanked Heard for her 'tremendous gift' in a gushing media statement, saying it would 'support lifesaving treatments and cures … for critically ill children.'
But on June 26, 2019 Associate Senior Vice President Candie Davidson-Goldbronn wrote to the Aquaman actress asking to know why they had not received further installments.
'I am inquiring if you have knowledge if CHLA should expect further payment installment(s) on your behalf or if the pledge will not be fulfilled,' she wrote. 'I appreciate any insights on this matter.'
Depp's legal team are confident there was no further payments or correspondence because the hospital would have been legally compelled to hand it over.
Their subpoena demanded 'all documents that refer, reflect or relate to any donations made to you or for your benefit by Ms Heard from January 1, 2016 through and including the present.'
Adding to the confusion, DailyMail.com has learned of two further donations that the hospital received of $500,000 in 2017 and $250,000 in 2018, both in 'honor of Amber Heard'.
The funds came from an anonymous donor, however, rather than from Heard herself, and not from Depp.
The hospital’s June 2019 letter only refers to the initial $100,000, suggesting bosses did not consider the two payments part of Heard’s pledged $3.5m.