Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Farash Litigation Resumes

Nearly two weeks after the death of Rochester real estate tycoon Max M. Farash, the mourning period has ended and the litigation period has resumed.

In recent days, new lawyers have joined the case, requests have been made to delay some proceedings and other requests made to move those proceedings to a new judge. Behind the scenes, legal work needed to transfer almost all of Farash's wealth to his family foundation has begun.

And Farash's grand-nephew, Matthew Aroesty, is scheduled to be arraigned today on a felony charge that he misappropriated thousands of dollars from his great-uncle's company.

Farash, who was 95 when he died in a nursing home on Feb. 28, built a fortune worth an estimated $400 million. He had been declared mentally incapacitated three years earlier, and his business affairs managed by a court-appointed guardian, James C. Gocker.

The guardianship ended when Farash died, but Gocker now is trustee of a trust that will manage Farash's assets.

He said he was handling "all the issues you deal with when someone passes away," though his principal task was determining "how best to make this transition to the foundation so the highest value is actually transferred to the foundation. That is a not-uncomplicated matter."

If estimates of the size of Farash's fortune are accurate, it likely would become the largest charitable foundation in the Rochester area, making millions of dollars of gifts annually.

Full Article and Source:
Litigation Resumes in Dealings With Fortune of Late Max Farash

6 comments:

Jeff said...

This is one of those cases that we will have to wait and see how it turns out.

But, this I do know -- the guardian enriched himself at the expense of Max Farash and didn't follow Farash's wishes.

Anonymous said...

Since Max Farash's death, why is this being pursued? The heirs now should have control of the money and foundation, shouldn't they?

Watching said...

Remember that Gocker wanted to sell property Mr. Farash left to his daughter? Why? Mr. Farash didn't need the proceeds. Obviously, Gocker had an axe to grind!

Connie said...

How did Gocker get to be Trustee?

Thelma said...

Can you just see the liars rubbing their hands in expectation?

Ka-ching, Ka-ching!

Louis said...

According to the law, they are supposed to file final accountings and the case should go to surrogate's court.