A Manhattan judge on Monday urged “Transformers” star Shia LaBeouf to settle a dispute with his uncle over an unpaid $800,000 loan to avoid further conflict between the kin.
“A resolution would be better for the family,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten said on Monday to attorneys for LaBeouf and his mother’s brother, Barry Saide.
Bransten called struggling Manhattan businessman Saide “tremendously self-serving” for claiming that he never expected to have to repay his Hollywood nephew for the loan that was due in January 2011.
Saide, who runs an employment agency and fell on hard times during the last recession, says his now-famous nephew sponged off him for years before rising to fame.
The uncle says in court papers that his sister, Shayna Saide, was a single mother who “lived like a gypsy, doing odd jobs like designing jewelry,” while she raised her son in Los Angeles.
“Prior to Shia’s ascendancy to film stardom . . . I loaned Shayna hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist in the support of Shayna and Shia,” he said in the lawsuit, filed this past spring.
“I never sought repayment of this money; Shayna, Shia and I are family.”
LaBeouf made $20 million for his roles in the “Transformers” series and $8 million to star in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel.
Saide’s attorney, Samuel Kramer, agreed with the judge saying, “A bad settlement is better than a good trial.”
Bransten heard oral arguments on a motion by the actor’s attorney to issue an expedited decision in the conflict.
But the judge put off her decision and urged an out of court resolution.