by Mike Pare
The son of the longtime head of Cleveland, Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America is seeking to become conservator for his 91-year-old father, Forrest Preston.
An attorney for Aubrey B. Preston said in a filing in Bradley County Chancery Court that his father's wife and her family members have abused the elder Preston and financially exploited him.
"Aubrey no longer had any choice but to seek this court's intervention, not just for Life Care's patients and employees, but most importantly for the safety and well-being of his father," said Chattanooga attorney Gary L. Patrick in the complaint.
The Life Care Centers chair and CEO in 1970 founded the company that has become one of the nation's biggest privately owned nursing home chains. It also made Forrest Preston one of Tennessee's wealthiest individuals, with Forbes putting his net worth at more than $1 billion.
But the complaint filed Tuesday accuses Preston's wife, Kim Phuong Nguyen Preston, along with her sister and brother, of collective abuse, neglect, exploitation, financial exploitation and theft as his caretakers.
The complaint said the three were named for their conspiracy and civilly aiding and abetting one another to misappropriate Forrest Preston's assets in violation of the Tennessee Adult Protection Act. The complaint was filed together with the petition for conservatorship, the filing said.
Preston said in a phone call Tuesday he didn't know the complaint was coming.
"It all hit today. When you have blood against blood, it's a stupid thing to do," he said. "It sounds like the whole world is ending, but not so."
The company did not return a request for comment.
Court papers called the elder Preston "a mentally and physically disabled" man requiring the court's intervention.
The complaint said Preston in 2018 married his current wife, who is decades younger and was his caretaker, 18 months after his first wife died while he was dependent on opioids and Valium.
"In the years that followed, Kim Preston — who immigrated from Vietnam with her siblings — progressively isolated Forrest from his family, friends and others who know, love and care for him," the complaint said.
Instead of protecting Preston, the three were accused of unlawfully enriching themselves, acquiring millions of dollars of real estate through him along with substantial cash.
"But tens of millions of dollars of real estate and cash are still not enough for Kim and her family," the complaint said. "They have a much grander scheme involving Forrest's most valuable assets: Life Care Centers of America and its affiliates."
The complaint said Preston's wife and her siblings are "practiced fraudsters and have a history of grifting that spans decades."
It said Aubrey Preston has "tried to make peace" with his father's remarriage, but his concerns grew over the emergence of "unsettling details about Kim and her family."
The filing said the elder Preston solely owns Life Care, which employs more than 30,000 people nationally. It said Preston's "disabilities have opened the door for Kim Preston and her family to dangerously disrupt operations and drain cash and assets."
His wife and her siblings have injected themselves into Life Care board meetings, the complaint said. It said she "regularly terrorizes and threatens Life Care employees with a show of power and control."
The complaint said Preston has suggested his wife, without relevant education or any known experience operating a business, is likely his succession plan.
"With Forrest's disability and isolation and Kim's domination and control over him, Life Care's ongoing operations are in jeopardy," the filing said.
The filing said Forrest Preston is believed to have dementia and other cognitive defects that make him unable to manage his own resources, carry out the daily activities of living or protect himself from neglect.
A message left for Kim Preston was not returned.
Full Article & Sourrce:
Son seeks conservatorship for Life Care’s Forrest Preston
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