by James M. Berklan
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| Life Care Centers of America owner, founder, CEO/Chairman Forrest Preston, circa 2003 (Photo: Max McKenzie/LCCA) |
An emergency hearing Wednesday may determine who will hold decision-making control over the nation’s largest privately held nursing home chain.
Aubrey Preston, a son of Forrest Preston, the founder and sole owner of Life Care Centers of America, filed an emergency petition for conservatorship early last week. He alleges that Forrest’s third wife, a former family caregiver, has taken advantage of the 91-year-old, whom top company officers and close friends say has dementia and lacks sufficient decision-making ability.
Forrest Preston’s personal work assistant and two of his other three children also are among those who have attested in affidavits filed in a Tennessee court to his inabilities. They have also accused Forrest’s wife, Kim Phuong Nguyen Preston, of abusing him financially and physically.
In a pre-emptive strike against the possible naming of someone other than Aubrey as a conservator for Forrest, a supplemental filing Thursday alleged that a top company financial official has been complicit with Kim Preston in improperly moving money out of an LCCA sister company for non-company use.
Lisa Lay, whose LinkedIn account describes her as senior vice president, treasury, has been “complicit with Kim in transferring money and potentially other assets to Kim and her family while Forrest has been disabled,” according to a supplemental filing in the Chancery Court of Bradley County in Tennessee.
Esmerelda Lee, the COO and executive vice president for LCCA “sister company” Century Park Associates, said in a sworn affidavit that Lay has improperly removed money needed for Century Park’s 42 buildings at Kim Preston’s direction.
LCCA owns and/or manages more than 200 facilities and employs more than 30,000 people nationwide. As sole shareholder of LCCA, Forrest Preston is worth an estimated $1.2 billion.
Millions of dollars worth of real estate and cash have already flowed toward Kim and a sister and brother, Aubrey Preston’s court filings claim.
Pressure, rerouted funds
“Lisa does as Kim instructs without fail,” Lee said in her affidavit about Lay. Lee said that Century Park funding for capital projects has allegedly been diverted by Lay directly to Kim and Forrest.
Subsequently, Lee said, she then must meet with Kim and Forrest “almost monthly” to receive funds to run the buildings, with meetings sometimes lasting up to eight hours.
“I am usually berated and questioned by Kim as to where the cash went and Kim has also falsely accused me of mismanagement of and theft from Century Park,” Lee added. “Forrest cannot understand what is going on in these meetings and cannot focus or stay on the topic of conversations …”
[Editor’s note: In a separate sworn affidavit filed Monday that became known to McKnight’s only on Tuesday, Lay stated that she has never been asked to serve as a conservator for Forrest Preston and “would not agree to serve in that capacity if asked or appointed.” She also says she endorses Aubrey Preston for any such appointment that may be made. Commenting on Century Park accounts, she said that she is “obligated to follow, and have always followed, Forrest’s instructions regarding the accounts,” adding that she has “no independent discretion regarding the accounts.” “In performing my duties at Life Care, I have never reported to or taken direction from Kim Preston,” she added.]
Also filing an affidavit questioning Forrest’s mental competence was John F. McMullan, a personal friend for 50 years, as well as a business confidant and a former LCCA board member for 30 years. Preston at one time named him the executor of his estate in his last will and testament and gave him power of attorney, McMullan said.
“I believe Forrest is mentally incompetent and under the control and influence of Kim, which she is misusing to alienate Forrest from his friends and family, including me,” he said. He endorsed Aubrey Preston as a conservator, a position Forrest once told McMullan he should take himself if needed.
In her affidavit, personal assistant Janice Seay described a day when Kim Preston menaced Forrest with a fist, threatening to “knock out his other tooth,” during a meeting with a vendor who later “expressed grave concerns about Kim’s behavior.” Lay instructed Seay not to tell any other Life Care leaders about the incident, Seay said.
It was also during that nearly day-long meeting that Kim never took Forrest to the restroom after he requested such help, Seay’s affidavit said.
Another affidavit was filed from Gaye Harris, Forrest’s step-daughter. She said that she personally witnessed Kim — who at the time was hired to take care of her mother, who had suffered a stroke — “grab Forrest’s crotch in a sexually suggestive manner on multiple occasions.”
Family matter or corporate peril?
Wednesday’s hearing had originally been scheduled for Nov. 12, but was apparently delayed at the request of Forrest Preston’s legal team. In a recent article in Forbes, one of his attorneys told the business magazine that current events are “a private family matter” and that the company was “financially sound with good management in place.”
In the emergency appeal for conservatorship filed Nov. 4, Life Care President Todd Fletcher and CFO Steve Ziegler each testified that Forrest Preston had been missing from work for weeks or months at a time and is “mentally disabled” and unable to make important decisions.
The result, they each contended, has put Forrest’s health, and that of the company, at great risk.
Aubrey Preston first filed for conservatorship on Oct. 29. That resulted in a local judge ordering medical exams and interviews of Forrest Preston out of the presence of his wife. Those did not proceed over Forrest’s objections.
Aubrey filed the emergency request after it was discovered that Kim
Preston had entered LCCA’s headquarters in Cleveland, TN, after hours
one night for no apparent business reason and also had asked for help in
updating Forrest’s passport.
Full Article & Source:
Emergency hearing may determine control of Life Care Centers of America as case claiming owner’s mental disability grows
See Also:
UPDATED: Court shifts emergency control of Life Care Centers of America to owner’s son
Son seeks conservatorship for Life Care’s Forrest Preston
Life Care Centers CEO Faces Conservatorship Bid, Raising Concerns Over Nursing Home Giant’s Future
Emergency Petition Seeks to Expedite Conservatorship for CEO of Nursing Home Giant Life Care Centers
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