The accountant and attorney for the estate of a 104-year-old copper mine heiress who died earlier this year have been under investigation for their handling of their client's finances, and the accountant has now resigned as executor.
Huguette Clark, the granddaughter of a prominent U.S. Senator, lived a reclusive life, spending her last decades in a hospital room at New York City’s Beth Israel Hospital (see
The attorney and accountant have been accused of siphoning millions of dollars out of her estate, and the nurse is in line to inherit more than $30 million from the last will that they drew up on behalf of Clark. They deny any wrongdoing.
Much of the money in that last will also went to a charitable foundation that will be controlled by the attorney and accountant. The foundation would set up an art museum at her Santa Barbara mansion to showcase her collection of masterpieces by Renoir, Monet and other artists. Both wills were apparently drawn up within weeks of one another, and only after Clark had reached the age of 98. Her family has filed suit against the attorney and accountant, contesting that will, and the nurse, Hadassah Peri, has filed suit against the family to keep them from getting a closer look at how the money was spent.
A public administrator for New York County, Ethel Griffin, has now been appointed, and she is asking the court to remove the accountant, Irving Kamsler, and attorney, Wallace Bock, as executors for the Clark estate, according to
Kamsler, a convicted felon and registered sex offender who was accused of sending indecent materials to teenage girls in an AOL chat room, has now resigned as the accountant for her estate. He was Clark’s attorney for 30 years and Bock was her attorney for 15 years.
An attorney for Kamsler and Bock issued a statement defending their actions, pointing out that there is no allegation in the papers filed by the public administrator that either of them was taking any money out of Clark’s account to benefit themselves and that they had handled her affairs in a way “to protect and preserve her chosen lifestyle.”
The battles are likely to play out in court for years to come.
Michael Cohn writes for