A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ordered Faith Evans to immediately hand over nearly $14 million in profits from The Notorious B.I.G.'s estate to the trust set up by Voletta Wallace. The ruling, issued Tuesday, Oct. 27, ends the latest legal fight over who gets paid from the estate that has been generating money since Wallace's death.
The order centers on profits tied to a landmark Primary Wave catalog deal and a share that Wayne Barrow said the trust was owed. He had argued that the trust was entitled to 25% of estate earnings, and Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick agreed that the trust should receive distributions that accrued after Voletta Wallace died on Feb. 21, 2025. McCormick wrote that all economic rights tied to Wallace's member interest in the LLC transferred to her estate at death, and that the trust, as the ultimate beneficiary, was entitled to those distributions.
That ruling matters now because the money has been sitting inside the estate rather than moving out the door. McCormick found that the trust's share from February to December 2025 totals $12.5 million, with interest pushing the full payment to nearly $14 million, according to Jay Freiberg. Under the order, Evans must pay the amount immediately to Wayne Barrow, who will then donate it to the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation under the terms of Voletta Wallace's will.
The court fight was not just about the size of the payment. Evans argued that Barrow did not have the right legal documentation to claim the money, while the court had already sided with him in Delaware's Chancery Court in August. McCormick later ruled that the trust did, in fact, ink the correct paperwork to take over Wallace's share of estate earnings in December 2025, leaving little room for Evans to keep the profits in place.
Freiberg welcomed the order, saying, "We are pleased with the latest order from the Chancellor" and calling it part of the court's decisions recognizing Evans' "misbehavior regarding Notorious Big LLC after the death of Mama Wallace." He also said, "Hopefully she will [pay] and, equally important, stop fighting the inevitable result properly planned by Mama Wallace — that the trust is a co-equal member of the LLC with Ms. Evans, and entitled to all that comes with this status." Evans' attorney declined to comment on Thursday, Oct. 29.
The case is not over for everyone involved. Barrow, who was named Voletta Wallace's legal trustee in February 2025, is still facing a separate lawsuit from CJ Wallace in Pennsylvania over changes to Wallace's will. That dispute, which alleges Barrow manipulated Wallace into rewriting the will on her deathbed, remains ongoing. For now, though, the Delaware ruling gives Evans a clear instruction: pay the money, plus interest, and let the trust receive what the court says it was always due.
