João Gilberto's daughter had him declared incapable while he faced eviction, and his heirs won R$150 million from his record label after he died

In 1997 the singer João Gilberto sued his record label, EMI, for reissuing his early albums on CD without his consent and for unpaid royalties. In 2013 he took a multimillion-real advance from the bank Opportunity against the lawsuit; his daughter's lawyer said he received R$5 million. By 2017 he faced eviction from his Leblon flat for late rent. His daughter, the singer Bebel Gilberto, asked the 5th Orphans and Successions Court in Rio to place him under interdiction. She cited mental confusion, vulnerability to manipulation and debts, and sought to remove his ex-wife Cláudia Faissol from his finances. She was given control of his decisions. In April 2018 court officers entered his flat to serve him and found he could not understand them. His son João Marcelo later accused Bebel of taking their father's money and tried to lift the interdiction; she denied it. Gilberto died on 6 July 2019, aged 88, leaving three children. In October 2023 a Rio appeals court fixed EMI's liability to his heirs at R$150 million, with Universal Music liable as EMI's successor. In June 2026 the Superior Court of Justice was still deciding whether a company claiming to have bought part of his lawsuit credit can draw on the money.