According to a report in Ultimate Classic Rock (via Irish Central) Clayton’s former assistant Carol Hawkins took his funds over a five-year stretch that actually started prior to the March 2005 launch of U2′s Vertigo Tour. Clayton has filed a lawsuit against Hawkins, who reportedly has already admitted to using Clayton’s credit cards and taking about $16,500 of his money without authorization.

Irish Central reports that Clayton is attempting to stop Hawkins from selling his $465,000 apartment in New York that she allegedly bought with his money, paying cash. The Irish Courts have already ordered Hawkins not to reduce her assets to under $2.3 million.

Clayton has also filed suit against Bank of Ireland Private Banking and the accounting firm Gaby Smyth & Co. As for damages, Clayton is looking for about $7 million from the bank and the reported missing $7.5 million from the accounting firm. A ruling is expected in the next few weeks.

Jeesh. How rich do you have to be before you can NOT notice tens of thousands – and then possibly millions of dollars – from going missing? I mean, did Clayton think he’d just left a big whack of bills in his other pants? 

And as UCR notes, this is not the first time Clayton has had a legal beef with Gaby Smyth & Co.; he sued the firm after its 2007 relocation of U2′s song publishing company to Holland. All of which will be very interesting to watch as this goes down.

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