Courtney Love claims that up to $500million Kurt Cobain left her and their daughter Frances Bean has gone missing.

The singer's lawyer Rhonda J Holmes said a team of investigators, lawyers and forensic accountants unearthed that $30million in cash had been stolen from the estate left by the late Nirvana singer.

Shockingly, Holmes claims that up to a mammoth $500million had been fraudulently invested in real estate using Love and Frances Bean's Social Security numbers.

Holmes told the New York Post's Page Six: "I have never seen such greed and moral turpitude. This case is going to make Bernard Madoff look warm and fuzzy.

"We will be filing civil cases . . . within the next 30 days. There are many, many millions missing. We've only been able to track down $30 million, but there is more. And then there is the real estate."

She continued: "There is now a web of homes which were bought, flipped and used to launder money -- up to $500 million worth. Any of the property we can get back will be donated to people who have lost their homes in foreclosures."

Holmes continued that Love only realised the money was missing when it had run out, adding: Courtney noticed the money was gone when there wasn't any left. It's no secret she struggled with substance-abuse issues, but in the last year she's taken a more serious approach to sobriety and started noticing things were wrong. She hired private investigators, accountants and me.”

She finished to the newspaper: "We are also working with local and federal authorities. When Mr. Cobain died in 1994, he left his enormously wealthy estate behind for the benefit of his mother, two sisters, a brother, his wife and young daughter. Many of those (involved with) the estate's coffers mismanaged, stole and outright looted it shamelessly."

(by Scott Colothan)