The state attorney general claimed victory in a legal battle stemming from 2005 that challenged the legitimacy of a sales agreement in which an elderly woman agreed to sell her home to two men for less than half of what it was worth at the time.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal intervened after Mona Lee Johnson agreed to sell her home, estimated to be worth $1.2 million, for $500,000, a month before she passed away.
The Attorney General's Office alleged that her neighbor, Mark Lovallo, had urged Johnson to sign off on the sales option while she was sick in the hospital. The deal also included her longtime accountant, David Alfano.
Blumenthal said that Johnson never intended to approve the deal, which would have significantly lowered the amount of money that would have been donated to eight of her favorite charities. Johnson's will divided nearly all of her $1.5 million estate to charities including the Greenwich Library and Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich.
Blumenthal: "I fought successfully to stop this suspect agreement denying hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities intended to benefit from the home's sale. In charity law, the donor's wishes are paramount. This donor never wished to sell her home at a bargain-basement price, significantly slashing the proceeds to charities named in her will."
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Attorney general intervenes in Greenwich estate case
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal intervened after Mona Lee Johnson agreed to sell her home, estimated to be worth $1.2 million, for $500,000, a month before she passed away.
The Attorney General's Office alleged that her neighbor, Mark Lovallo, had urged Johnson to sign off on the sales option while she was sick in the hospital. The deal also included her longtime accountant, David Alfano.
Blumenthal said that Johnson never intended to approve the deal, which would have significantly lowered the amount of money that would have been donated to eight of her favorite charities. Johnson's will divided nearly all of her $1.5 million estate to charities including the Greenwich Library and Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich.
Blumenthal: "I fought successfully to stop this suspect agreement denying hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities intended to benefit from the home's sale. In charity law, the donor's wishes are paramount. This donor never wished to sell her home at a bargain-basement price, significantly slashing the proceeds to charities named in her will."
Full Article and Source:
Attorney general intervenes in Greenwich estate case
4 comments:
I am glad to see the AG get involved for a change.
Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal: "I fought successfully to stop this suspect agreement denying hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities intended to benefit from the home's sale. In charity law, the donor's wishes are paramount. This donor never wished to sell her home at a bargain-basement price, significantly slashing the proceeds to charities named in her will."
I am very pleased that the perps were dragged in and this transaction was exposed for what it is, investigated and killed.
However, I am more than concerned that the only reason the AG's Office intervened was due to charities being named the beneficiary of
Mona Lee Johnson's estate.
Here's the thing - we have seen the same thing in the Ruth Lilly and Brooke Astor case.
Charities get their feathers ruffled because they're getting less than they got previously, and next thing we know, here's a big lawsuit.
If charities weren't involved, I wonder if the ACLU and AG would be involved in the Mona Lee Johnson will.
Yes, the charity problem is what drew the AG in. Which means if there weren't a lot of money involved -- for the charity, the AG would have declined.
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