Family of heiress launches challenge of multi-million dollar will, claiming fraud
The New York Post - February 16, 2012
Relatives of the late New York heiress Huguette Clark have launched a challenge to her will, claiming fraud by its beneficiaries -- her nurse, accountant and attorney -- MSNBC reported Wednesday. Clark, who died last year at the age of 104, signed a will leaving her nurse Hadassah Peri $35 million, and her lawyer Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler $500,000 each and control of a multimillion-dollar foundation. It cut her family out entirely. In another will, signed just six weeks earlier, she left Peri $5 million, with the rest of the $400 million copper mining fortune going to Clark's family. This week, 19 members of Clark's family filed an objection to the second will in Manhattan's Surrogate's Court. The heiress "was not competent to make a will," the family's attorney John R. Morken said, according to court documents. "...she did not know the nature, extent or value of her assets, was not of sound mind or memory and was not mentally capable of making a will." Morken went on to claim that the will "was not freely and voluntarily made" and had been "procured by the undue influence" of Peri, Block and Kamsler, among other people. Should the court find that Clark was not competent to sign the second will in April 2005, it would likely raise questions as to how she was competent to sign the first will -- in March 2005 -- which favored the family. However, if both wills are thrown out, under New York state law, the family stands to inherit everything. Clark, whose father was the second richest man in the US in the early 1900s, died May 24, 2011 at New York's Beth Israel Hospital, where she had reportedly been staying since at least September 2010.
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Executors get the ax
The New York Post by Liz Sadler - December 24, 2011
Lawyer Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler, suspected of taking advantage of an elderly copper heiress, got the boot yesterday as executors of her $400 million estate. Manhattan Surrogates Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen called the pair “unfit to serve” and suspended them from administrating the late Huguette Clark’s affairs. The ruling came after Peter Schram, a lawyer for the county public administrator, accused Bock and Kamsler of failing to pay some $90 million in gift taxes and interest over the years. The Manhattan DA’s Office is probing the handling of Clark’s finances.
It's all a money grab.... now the public administrator's lawyer will cash in. No faith in the process!!!!
ReplyDeleteFollow the money and you'll find the biggest crooks... and they will probably have a law license.
ReplyDeleteIn a case of the pot calling the kettle black:
ReplyDelete"It’s splitsville for accused Bronx ticket-fixing cop Jose Ramos and his lawyer"
Who hasn't heard this:
“There’s been a breakdown in communication between Mr. Ramos and I,” said Sandleitner, who had petitioned the Bronx Surpreme Court to get off the case."
And-
"Standing unhappilly beside Sandleitner and dressed in orange prison clothes, Ramos called his counsel a no-show lawyer."
And-
“He just abandoned me,” said Ramos. “Basically, I’ve had no contact with Mr. Sandleitner since November.”
Finally-
"Barrett finally agreed to let Sandleitner jump ship after learning that Ramos had filed a complaint against the lawyer with a state disciplinary board."
Let's see how far that complaint goes.
Now this officer will learn what justice in NY really means.
The lawyer's crime was not stealing from the heirs;it was failing to pay the government its cut. Lawyers are officers of the Government's courts" and must 'pay to play' in the government's sanctioned system. Pay to play is serious business and a by-passed recipient can be a fatal flaw.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Trust & Estate Bar' will 'cash-in' on this pile of money. The Surrogate's Court is the ringmaster as to who gets what. They will all do well! Rob the dead legally that's the game!
ReplyDeleteSo, what't the problem here? It's just a little fraud amongst friends, besides, there is nothing that is bad enough for an attorney to actually be prevented from practicing in NY, legally.
ReplyDeleteFelonies? No big deal!
What’s a lawyer have to do to get disbarred? Hank Morris and David Loglisci — two former top aides to disgraced ex-state Controller Alan Hevesi — still have their law licenses, despite each pleading guilty in 2010 to felonies involving a pay-to-play scandal connected to the state’s massive pension fund.
State law requires immediate disbarment of any lawyer who is convicted of a felony, but records show that the licenses of Morris Loglisci haven’t been yanked.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/york-assembly-speaker-sheldon-silver-totally-gov-cuomo-pension-reforms-article-1.1025513#ixzz1mvSEZI5L