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Astor's Son Found Guilty of Looting Estate By Jennifer Peltz, NEW YORK (Oct. 8) — Brooke Astor's 85-year-old son was convicted Thursday of exploiting his philanthropist mother's failing mind and helping himself to her nearly $200 million fortune. Anthony Marshall now faces a mandatory jail sentence of at least one year — and perhaps as many as 25 years. Jurors delivered their verdict on the 11th full day of deliberations, ending a five-month trial that revealed the New York society doyenne's sad decline. She was 105 and had Alzheimer's disease when she died in 2007. The jury convicted Marshall of 14 counts, including first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud, but acquitted him on two charges, falsifying business records and another first-degree grand larceny count. His co-defendant, estate lawyer Francis X. Morrissey Jr., was convicted on all five charges, including scheming to defraud, conspiracy and forgery. Marshall, wearing a dark suit, looked at the jurors as they were polled. Morrissey, 66, looked down but didn't betray any emotion. They will remain free on bail until their Dec. 8 sentencing. Morrissey faces up to seven years in prison. "I'm stunned by the verdict," said Marshall's attorney, Frederick Hafetz. "We are greatly disappointed in it, and we will definitely appeal." After the jury left the courtroom, Marshall's wife, Charlene, stood at the rail with her hand on Marshall's shoulder, her eyes glistening. When reporters asked her for a response, she said only, "I love my husband," and gave him a brief hug. The couple walked out of the courthouse, hand in hand, to a waiting limousine. The trial offered a peek into high society from Park Avenue to Palm Beach as prosecutors told a Dickensian tale of upper-crust money-grubbing with a deteriorating grande dame at its center. The case put Astor's famous friends, including Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger, on the witness stand and her dark final years on display. Jurors heard how a beau monde benefactor renowned for her elegance and wit became a disoriented invalid fearful of her own shadow. Marshall "stole from his mother while she suffered from Alzheimer's disease, making her life worse while enriching his own," prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy said after the verdict. Marshall was accused of a range of tactics — from scheming to inherit millions of dollars to simply stealing artwork off her walls. Morrissey was accused of helping manipulate a confused Astor into changing her will to leave Marshall millions of dollars that had been destined for charity. Jurors left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. They rejected only the falsifying business records charge — it alleged that Marshall lied to an accountant about $757,000 he got from Astor — and a grand larceny count that concerned the $10 million sale of one of her favorite paintings. Prosecutors claimed Marshall misled his mother about the state of her finances so he could sell the artwork, Childe Hassam's "Flags, Fifth Avenue." Astor's last will, created Jan. 30, 2002, left millions of dollars to her favorite charities. Amendments in 2003 and 2004 gave Marshall most of her estate. Prosecutors portrayed Marshall — a former U.S. ambassador and Tony Award-winning Broadway producer — as a greedy heir who couldn't wait for his mother to die, buying himself a $920,000 yacht with her money but refusing to get a $2,000 safety gate to keep her from falling. Defense lawyers said Astor was lucid when she bequeathed the money to her only child and that he had legal power to give himself gifts while she was alive. She was keenly focused on her will, and she loved her son, they said. Morrissey, whose convictions include forging Astor's signature on one of the changes to her will, declined to comment as he left the courthouse. Defense lawyer Thomas Puccio said Morrissey planned to appeal. The trial delved into Astor's shadowy mental state, health problems, finances and family relations. Jurors got crash courses in topics ranging from estate planning to handwriting analysis. Prosecutors called some 72 witnesses. Many of them testified about Astor's mental confusion in the last years of her life. Walters described using a photo album to help Astor recall guests at her 100th birthday bash during a visit only months later. Kissinger testified that Astor didn't recognize former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a party she threw for him in 2002. Former Brown University President Vartan Gregorian recalled the normally decorous society dame making an awkward toast to Britain's Camilla Parker Bowles in 1999. But defense lawyer Hafetz pointed to episodes he said showed Astor was cogent at times, citing an impeccably spelled four-page letter she wrote to her close friend Annette de la Renta in November 2002. Astor's third husband, Vincent Astor, was the son of multimillionaire John Jacob Astor IV. She took charge of her husband's philanthropic work after his death in 1959. Her efforts won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1998. Marshall is her son from a previous marriage to stockbroker Charles "Buddie" Marshall, who died in 1952. The criminal case against Marshall and Morrissey came after one of Astor's grandsons asked a court to remove Marshall from handling her affairs. Philip Marshall accused his father of abusing Astor by letting her live in squalor while he looted her fortune. Anthony Marshall denied the claims but agreed in October 2006 to step aside as his mother's guardian. De la Renta and longtime Astor friend David Rockefeller, who both backed the grandson's allegations, responded to Thursday's verdict by noting that they had tried to ensure Astor's comfort toward the end of her life. "Thankfully, that was accomplished," they said through spokesman Fraser Seitel. "But the rest of the story was really very sad." A civil case concerning Astor's will has been on hold while prosecutors pursued the criminal charges. Associated Press Writer Karen
Matthews contributed to this report. (AP) – 21 hours ago NEW YORK — In an Oct. 8 story about the conviction of Anthony Marshall for looting the fortune of his mother, Brooke Astor, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Marshall was her son from a marriage to Charles "Buddie" Marshall. Anthony Marshall's biological father was Astor's first husband, J. Dryden Kusar. He later adopted his stepfather's last name. NY Judge Approves $2.2 Million in Astor Case Legal Fees By The Associated Press The judge who heard the fight over the estate and care of philanthropist Brooke Astor awarded lawyers in the case more than $2.2 million yesterday, less than what he called the "staggering" $3.04 million they had asked for. State Supreme Court Justice John Stackhouse noted that the fee and expense requests were meant to pay 56 lawyers, 65 legal assistants, six accountants, five bankers, six doctors, a law school professor and two public relations firms. As state law permits, the judge said, legal fees and expenses will be paid from the 104-year-old Astor's $120 million estate. He said he would not reimburse public relations expenses or time spent talking to the news media. The largest fee award, $1.07 million, went to the JPMorgan Chase bank, appointed by the judge to be guardian of the society grande dame and philanthropist's finances and property. The judge noted that Annette de la Renta, whom he appointed to be the guardian of Astor's personal well being, asked for nothing as reimbursement.
Attorney Inherits the Windfall By Stefanie Cohen and Dareh
Gregorian
Francis X. Morrissey Jr. has befriended and done estate work for at least six people who died in their 80s and 90s - most of whom changed their wills shortly before dying to make sure he got a bigger piece of their fortunes, court records show. One of his generous clients
was economist In two of the cases, including Schurr's, Morrissey was accused of using "undue influence" - taking advantage of his clients' mental states for his own benefit. Both cases settled, and the charges were never substantiated. Morrissey did not return calls seeking comment. Friends of Astor - the 104-year-old first lady of New York society and philanthropy - say her penny-pinching son, Anthony Marshall, placed Morrissey in charge of her estate planning in 2004, pushing aside her 40-year relationship with the white-shoe law firm of Sullivan Cromwell. Morrissey, 63, is friends with Marshall and his wife, Charlene, and is on the board of their theater-production company, Delphi Productions. Morrissey's association with Delphi certainly provided him with easier access to Astor because Marshall moved the company's offices into the grande dame's Park Avenue apartment in 2004. Marshall's lawyer, Kenneth Warner, insisted it was Astor's idea to turn to Morrissey for "general advice. He didn't prepare any legal documents. His role was limited." He said Morrissey and Astor have been friends since the 1970s. Records show Morrissey has made his longtime friendships with other rich people pay off. Morrissey, who was admitted to the bar in 1973, was doing estate work by the mid-'70s. In 1979, he befriended Jay Lovestone, labor party leader, co-founder of the Communist Party of America and CIA operative. He was named co-executor of Lovestone's 1986 will, which was prepared when Lovestone was 86. He died in 1990, and left a chunk of his estate to Morrissey, who said in court papers that he'd overseen Lovestone's medical care for the last few years of his life. In an affidavit, Morrissey said he'd been introduced to Lovestone by Page Morris, "who was a close friend of his for over 50 years, and a very close friend of my own family for many years." Morrissey also did legal work for Morris, who died in 2002 at age 98. Her 2001 will left Morrissey one-third of her estate after her debt cleared. It was through Lovestone that Morrissey became friends with Schurr, who was married to Lovestone's niece. Schurr's nephew charged in court papers that Morrissey and others took advantage of his uncle's failing mental state after a stroke he had suffered in 2000. The papers noted that Schurr suddenly moved to New York in August 2001 and bought an East 57th Street apartment. The following March, he changed his will and decided to leave his newly bought apartment to Morrissey, along with the valuable drawing. Morrissey maintained Schurr was of sound mind until he died of a heart attack. Two of Morrissey's other elderly friends were friends of each other - Anne Hilde Huston and Elisabeth Von Knapitsch first met at a dance class in Germany when they were 10. Huston, who emigrated to New York in 1936 to escape the Nazis, left him her Maine house and 29 acres of land. Susannah Jones, of Seal Cove, Maine, a neighbor of Huston's said she'd always told people Morrissey was getting the house. "It was always very clear she was leaving it to him," Jones said. "He was awfully good to her." When The Post knocked on the door of the home, a man who answered identified himself as Morrissey's nephew-in-law, said the attorney owns the property - and asked the reporter to leave. Huston's pal Von Knapitsch left him her Park Avenue apartment and the Renoirs. That was actually small potatoes for Morrissey - at one point, Von Knapitsch wrote a will that left him her entire $15 million estate. The court Public Administrator challenged the will, and charged Morrissey had used "undue influence" on the elderly Von Knapitsch. The case settled last year, with a total of $3 million going to one of Von Knapitsch's relatives, a charity and for various legal fees. Morrissey was never found to have committed any wrongdoing. Probers for JPMorgan Chase, the temporary, court-appointed financial guardians for Astor, are reviewing her financial matters, including whether she changed any of her wills in the past few years and how much of her money has been invested in Delphi.
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lawyer allegedly brought in by Brooke Astor's son to work on her
estate has a history of becoming close with elderly millionaires -
and then making a killing off their estates. |
A Feast
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