No charges filed against Huguette Clark's attorney or accountant as investigation into reclusive heiress' finances closes
- Huguette Clark died in 2011 after two decades living in a New York hospital
- Investigation was launched into her finances after it emerged she had signed 2 wills just weeks apart - with the second cutting out her family
- But investigation found she was of sound mind and signed checks for her generous gifts in her usual neat handwriting
- The investigation comes as a relief for her attorney and accountant, who had come under suspicion
No charges have been filed against the attorney and accountant who worked for the late heiress Huguette Clark, as the district attorney closes the investigation into how her estate was handled.
Attorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving H. Kamsler had fallen under suspicion after managing the $300 million fortune of Clark, a copper heiress who spent her last two decades living in a New York hospital before she passed away, aged 104, in May 2011.
The probe was launched after it emerged that she had given enormous gifts to her staff, including $30 million to her nurse.
She also had two wills with stark differences: the first left most of her property to distant relatives, while the second - written weeks later - did not mention her family. This second will also granted Bock and Kamsler $500,000 each from her estate.
Lucid: An investigation into how the late Huguette Clark's $300 million fortune was handled has closed after investigators found she had given her permission for all transactions made in her name
But the investigation, carried out by two detectives and a forensic accountant, found that Clark's extravagant gifts were made in her own steady handwriting or with her written authorization.
The closing of the investigation was first reported by NBC's Bill Dedman, who added that the district attorney's office would not say exactly when it ended.
He noted that documents revealed that when Clark's Stradivarius violin sold for $6 million, and when a Renoir painting was auctioned for $23 million, she authorized the sales.
Documents and testimony also showed that Clark was not kept from her relatives, NBC reported, but instead made her own decisions about whom to speak with in person or by phone.
No charges: The close of the investigation means no charges have been brought against Clark's attorney Wallace Bock, left, and her accountant Irving H. Kamsler, right, who had overseen her finances
A neurologist who testified in the investigation visited Clark in 2005, six months after she signed the second will. She said that the then-99-year-old seemed alert.
'She seemed cute as pie,' Dr. Louise Klebanoff testified. 'Perfectly content.'
Attorneys for Bock and Kamsler told NBC that their clients were satisfied because they had always worked within Clark's interests.
But a settlement last year ruled that they were not to receive the huge sums of money left to them by Clark.
The settlement combined elements from the two contradictory wills/
The family - many of whom Clark never even met - came out as the winners, receiving $34 million while her private nurse of 20 years, Hadassah Peri, was left with nothing.
Heiress: Clark, pictured, inherited her fortune from her industrialist father, William A. Clark, right
Luxury: Her estate was finally divided in a settlement last year. Pictured, inside her Manhattan home
Peri, an immigrant from the Philippines who worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week for Clark as she lived in New York hospitals, had originally been given $30 million in Clark's final will.
Peri had also been given $30 million in gifts throughout Clark's life. A separate deal ordered her to pay $5 million of these back to the estate after the attorney general's office deemed them excessive.
However, the settlement stopped Clark's relatives trying to get any more of these gifts.
While the Bock and Kamsler missed out on their payouts, the settlement also disposed of all legal claims against the pair, in relation to mistakes they apparently did make - such as failing to video her signing the will, and failing to claim gift tax returns for seven years.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2612210/No-charges-filed-against-Huguette-Clarks-attorney-accountant-investigation-reclusive-heiress-finances-closes.html#ixzz317i7loqv
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