Nicolas Cage may have fallen on hard financial times, sure, but even the celebrity gossip media may have underestimated how bad his money problems are.

The guy taking the blame for leaving Nicolas Cage broke claims by the time he was hired in 2001, "Coppola [Cage] had already squandered tens of millions."

Moreover, he owed millions in taxes "with no funds available to pay them."

In his countersuit, Samuel Levin, CPA, says when he was hired he warned Nic Cage he needed to earn $30 million a year just to maintain his lavish lifestyle.

In 2007 alone, Cage bought three homes totaling $33 million-plus, 22 cars (including 9 Rolls Royces), 12 pieces of expensive jewelry and 47 pieces of art.

Nicolas Cage is so broke these days, he can't even afford a razor to shave off that goatee! Just kidding. He is probably sporting that thing by choice.

Even worse, Levin maintains that Cage spent his free time "shopping for high-ticket purchases," including 15 homes, a Gulfstream jet, and a flotilla of yachts.

And there's this: Cage "also spent huge sums taking his sizable entourage on costly vacations and threw enormous, Gatsby-scale parties at his residences."

And this: "The pinnacle of [Cage's] spending spree came with his Quixotic acquisitions of Midford Castle in England and Schloss Neidstein Castle in Bavaria."

Levin warned Cage that the decrepit astles needed a king's ransom just to make them habitable. Cage owes him $128,872.98 in unpaid business services.