Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Farash Grand Nephew-Indicted

Former Farash Corp. chief executive Matthew S. Aroesty has been indicted on charges that he stole more than $50,000 from the company founded by his late great-uncle, Max M. Farash.

A Monroe County grand jury handed up an indictment Friday on a single count of second-degree grand larceny, which applies to theft of an amount greater than $50,000 and less than $1 million. The indictment came just two days before Farash died in a Webster nursing home at the age of 95.

The indictment likely will further ratchet up the discord between the 44-year-old Aroesty and a lawyer who has served as Farash’s court-appointed property guardian. The lawyer, James C. Gocker, provided evidence to the Brighton Police Department last year that led to Aroesty’s arrest in September on the grand larceny charge. The case then was sent to the grand jury.

Officials said then that the charge involved diversion of Farash Corp. assets to Aroesty’s personal benefit.

Gocker also filed suit last month against Aroesty and Farash’s only child, daughter Lynn Farash, alleging they had wrongly diverted more than $12 million from the company.

Full Article and Source:
Frash Grand-Nephew Indicted on Theft Charges

See Also:
Farash Guardianship Litigation Continues

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is always about the money!!!

Anonymous said...

According to various articles, since her mother, Marian Farash, passed away in 2007, Lynn Farash hasn’t seen a penny of the $2.2 million that she was supposed to inherit from in her mother’s trust fund which James C. Gocker, a Rochester lawyer, was the property guardian.

Yet, Gocker himself was paid about $960,000 for work in the first 28 months he was guardian.

Gocker has near-total control over Max Farash's assets and this guardianship proceeding has been the most expensive in New York's history. I cant help but wonder what the guardian was doing all these years that led to indictments now? If anyone was stealing money, why was it not noticed until now?? There is a saying in legal circles that 'a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich' meant to illustrate the ease by which an innocent person can be accused of wrongdoing even without much evidence and I hope that the Farash family is not victimized by the attorneys in this case, which is usually what happens in guardianship cases where a lot of money is present and accountability is non existent.

StandUp said...

Of course, we don't know what really happened here, but it's my opinion that the true robbers of Max Farash's estate is Gocker and his associates.

I think Gocker has been in revenge mode, Anon. 1

Thelma said...

$960,000 against zip?

So what else is new in guardianship/probate?

Betty said...

The guardianship was all about bleeding the Farash estate before Mr. Farash's passing because Gocker and his friends knew Mr. Farash was aged and could go at any time.

Greed? You bet. Greed = Gocker

patsi said...

i believe the guardian has been trying to thwart attention to his own misdeeds by attacking the daughter and grand nephew.