50 Cent files for bankruptcy

Rapper 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy protection in Connecticut on Monday, reporting debts and assets in the range of $10 million to $50 million.

Lawyers for the Get Rich or Die Tryinsinger filed court papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford under the musician's real name, Curtis James Jackson III.

Sex tape posted online

The voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing came three days after the 40-year-old New York-born rapper was ordered by a Manhattan court to pay $5 million in damages to a woman over a sex tape posted online in 2009, according to media reports.

The court case stemmed from a video in which the rapper is accused of adding a commentary to a tape that the woman made with her boyfriend and posting it online without her permission, celebrity website TMZ.com reported.

Lawyers for the rapper could not immediately be reached for comment on the bankruptcy filing. It lists his liabilities as in the region of $10 million to $50 million and his estimated assets in the same range.

50 Cent has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and won a Grammy Award in 2010. He has also worked as an actor, appearing in the 2008 film Righteous Kill,and as a boxing promoter.

His latest movie Southpaw,in which he plays a manipulative manager and boxing promoter, is due for release next week.

In May, Forbes estimated 50 Cent's net worth at $155 million, largely from his business interests in clothing, beverages and music technology.