Kin of wealthy heiress, 104, seek guardian for her
Two nieces and a nephew of the reclusive heiress of a Montana copper fortune are asking a Manhattan court to appoint a guardian to oversee the 104-year-old woman's personal and financial affairs.
The petition filed Friday also asks the court to bar Huguette Clark's attorney, Wallace Bock, and accountant Irving Kamsler from visiting her, presenting her any legal documents, signing anything on her behalf or selling any of her property to "prevent the risk of further improper influence" by Bock and Kamsler "for their personal benefit rather than the benefit of Ms. Clark." Clark has lived in New York hospitals for more than 20 years, and the petition said she currently lives in Beth Israel Medical Center.
The Manhattan district attorney's office is looking into Clark's care and how her finances are being handled, two people familiar with the probe told The Associated Press last month. Bock and Kamsler have not been accused of any crime. MSNBC.com first reported the probe and the family members' petition, which asks a judge to appoint Fiduciary Trust Co. International as guardian.
Clark was born in 1906 in Paris to Sen. William A. Clark, then 67, of Montana, and Anna Eugenia La Chapelle, 28, of Michigan. Years of mining copper made Clark the second-richest man in the U.S., after the Rockefellers. Huguette Clark's fortune is estimated at $500 million.
The petition filed by Ian Devine and Carla Hall Friedman of New York and Karine Albert McCall of Washington, D.C., says they are descendants of William Clark's three children from his first marriage and are among Huguette Clarke's closest living relatives. It argues that if a guardian isn't appointed, "Ms. Clark is likely to suffer personal and financial harm because she remains at risk from her purported fiduciaries, Bock and Kamsler."
The petition alleges B" Kamsler's attorney, Elizabeth Crotty, issued a statement to MSNBC saying, "It is unfortunate and questionable that Ms. Clark's distant relatives are ignoring her decision to live a private life." - AP
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
