Faith Evans Faces $12.5 Million Ruling in Biggie Trust Case

Caption: Faith Evans performing in April 2005. Credit: Timothy M. Moore / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Delaware court found that the trust established by Voletta Wallace, mother of the late rapper the Notorious B.I.G., is owed more than $12.5 million in distributions from the business managing his intellectual-property rights. The October 27 ruling arose from a dispute involving singer Faith Evans, the rapper’s widow, and Wayne Barrow, the trustee seeking to enforce the trust’s company rights.

Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick determined that the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust was entitled to $12,518,336 in distributions, according to People and court documents. The ruling also addressed prejudgment interest calculated at a statutory rate and compounded quarterly. The order concerns distribution rights associated with the company, rather than a criminal penalty or a fine imposed for personal misconduct.

Wallace and Evans formed Notorious B.I.G., LLC in 2007 to oversee rights associated with Christopher Wallace, the rapper’s legal name. When Voletta died in 2025, her interest passed to a trust. The trustee, former manager Wayne Barrow, later pursued the trust’s claimed rights within the company. The case concerns control and economic distributions tied to that membership interest.

A trustee change triggered litigation

Court reporting says Wallace amended the trust appointment shortly before her death, replacing Christopher ‘C.J.’ Wallace Jr., the son of Faith Evans and Christopher Wallace, with Barrow as sole trustee. Barrow sued in July 2025, alleging obstacles to exercising the trust’s company rights. The Delaware court sided with Barrow in an earlier ruling about company control; Evans’ counterclaim was dismissed.

The October letter resolved specific questions left after that earlier decision. As explained in the court’s analysis, there is a distinction between becoming a formal member of an LLC and holding economic rights as an assignee. The trust became a member in December 2025, but the court found that it was still entitled to certain earlier distributions.

That distinction gives the dispute significance beyond the celebrity names. Ownership interests in a company can carry rights to payments even before formal membership is perfected under the governing agreement. The court’s calculation reflects those economic rights and the relevant chronology of distributions.

Another family dispute continues

A separate case in Pennsylvania brought by C.J. challenges the circumstances surrounding Barrow’s appointment, according to People. That claim is not resolved by the Delaware court’s ruling on company rights and distributions. The continuing case means the family’s legal disagreements are not fully settled even after the financial decision.

Barrow’s attorney welcomed the Delaware ruling, while People said it sought comment from lawyers for Evans. The 2025 partnership between the company and Primary Wave adds a significant commercial setting for the management dispute: the company controls an influential music catalog and associated rights long after the artist’s death.

The court’s latest letter supplies the concrete result: a specified distribution obligation in favor of Wallace’s trust, interest calculations, and a separate unresolved challenge over who should serve as trustee.

References: Faith Evans Liable to Pay $12.5M to Trust of Notorious B.I.G.’s Late Mom Voletta | Wayne Barrow v Faith Evans - Delaware Court of Chancery