Latest news with #trustee
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Jimmy Buffett's $275M estate becomes center of heated inheritance dispute
The fight over Jimmy Buffett's estate has sparked a massive legal battle. His widow has filed a petition to have co-trustee Richard Mozenter, who manages the late musician's estate, removed for failing to act in her "best interests" with the marital trust that was "created for her benefit." Jane Buffett, who married the singer in 1977, made the legal filing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging that Mozenter, also a co-trustee of the marital trust set up for her, has been "openly hostile and adversarial" toward her and worked against her, according to the legal filing obtained by Fox News Digital. "Mr. Mozenter has failed to perform even the most basic tasks required of him in his role as co-trustee, including providing Mrs. Buffett with information concerning Trust assets and finances, which has left Mrs. Buffett in the dark with regard to the state of her own finances," the filing said. "Along the way, Mr. Mozenter has belittled, disrespected, and condescended to Mrs. Buffett in response to her reasonable requests for information she undoubtedly was entitled to receive. As a result, the majority of Mrs. Buffett's net worth is controlled by someone she does not trust, and to whom the Trust for her benefit must pay enormous fees—more than $1.7 million in 2024 to him and his firm—no matter how badly he treats her." Mozenter has filed his own petition in Florida to have her removed as co-trustee and representative of the estate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fox News Digital has reached out to Mozenter for comment. Jimmy Buffett died in 2023 following a battle with cancer, leaving a $275 million estate. Jane's filing claims that one month after the musician's death, she reached out to Mozenter to find out how much she would be expected to receive from the trust going forward. "Rather than help his recently-widowed client understand her finances, Mr. Mozenter spent the next 16 months stonewalling and making excuses for why he could not yet provide the requested information," the filing said. In February, Mozenter finally gave Jane an estimate that the marital trust would generate less than $2 million in net income annually, a rate of return of less than 1%, according to the filing. Mozenter "acknowledged that, over the prior 18 months, Margaritaville—a company of which the Trust owns roughly 20%—had paid distributions of approximately $14 million, but he decided against including any estimate of future distributions from Margaritaville in his analysis of the Marital Trust's future income." The filing stated that Mozenter told Jane that Margaritaville "continues to evaluate future business opportunities and how they deploy existing liquid assets." He told her, based on that analysis, that the trust would not cover her annual expenses, saying she could consider making "adjustments" or selling her own real estate to make up the difference, the filing claims. "If the Marital Trust truly earns such a low return consistent with the financials Mr. Mozenter presented, it will confirm that Mr. Mozenter is either not competent to administer the Trust or unwilling to act in Mrs. Buffett's best interests," Jane's filing claimed. Buffett landed on the Forbes billionaires list for the first time in 2023 for an empire that, along with his music, included his "Margaritaville" island escapism brand sparked by his hit 1977 song. As chair of Margarita Holdings LLC — in which Buffett held a 28% stake — he had resorts, restaurants, casinos, cruises and merchandise. Following their marriage in 1977, Buffett and Jane welcomed three children together, including Savannah, 46, Delaney, 33, and Cameron, who was born in 1994 and adopted by Buffett and Jane.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Jimmy Buffett's Widow Sues to Remove Trustee of $275 Million Estate
Jane Buffett, the widow of singer Jimmy Buffett, is seeking to remove the co-trustee of her husband's estate, saying he has failed to act in her best interests. The singer, who died in 2023, left an estate with $275 million in assets for the benefit of his wife, but Jane Buffett claimed in a court filing Tuesday that she's been told by her co-trustee that she's to receive less than $2 million annually, a rate of return of less than 1%.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Jimmy Buffett Widow Sues to Oust $275 Million Estate Trustee
Jane Buffett, the widow of singer Jimmy Buffett, is seeking to remove the co-trustee of her husband's estate, saying he has failed to act in her best interests. The singer, who died in 2023, left an estate with $275 million in assets for the benefit of his wife, but Jane Buffett claimed in a court filing Tuesday that she's been told by her co-trustee that she's to receive less than $2 million annually, a rate of return of less than 1%.
CBC
6 days ago
- General
- CBC
Nili Kaplan-Myrth exits OCDSB, blaming 'toxicity' on and off the board
Social Sharing A high-profile member of Ottawa's largest school board has resigned, alleging the organization is "entrenched in internal toxicity" and "driven by external forces with a goal to undo human rights and social justice work." Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth is a family physician who rose to public prominence while advocating for vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she was elected to a four-year term as the Capital/Alta Vista trustee for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). That tumultuous tenure came to an end at the tail end of the board's committee-of-the-whole meeting on Tuesday, with Kaplan-Myrth announcing her exit from the organization. "We need people to stand up for public education," she said, reading out from her letter of resignation, "but nobody should have to do so in the face of the kind of harassment I have experienced." After Kaplan-Myrth's remarks, trustee Cathryne Milburn asked the board chair, Lynn Scott, if she had any response. "I don't wish to have remarks from the chair," Kaplan-Myrth cut in. "It's not her who has the final word. That is my resignation." Kaplan-Myrth then rose from her seat and placed her letter in front of Scott. The board chair said Kaplan-Myrth's resignation must be accepted at the board's next regular board meeting. The board then has 90 days to find a replacement. "I'm disappointed, frankly," Scott told CBC after the meeting. "When we have trustees who have been with us for a while and when we have seen that there are good things that they can do, it's always a sense of loss." Pino Buffone, the board's director of education, acknowledged Kaplan-Myrth received "a lot of vile, unacceptable comments from the public more broadly, irrespective of her position or her perspective on various issues." Days before Tuesday's meeting, Kaplan-Myrth sent a statement to CBC News outlining her reasons for leaving the board despite having more than a year left in her term. Before the meeting, she'd informed at least one other trustee of her plan to resign, according to her statement. Kaplan-Myrth said the board failed to support her when she faced threats and hateful messages because of her progressive views and her being an outspoken member of Ottawa's Jewish community. "That's the reality of politics, you're no doubt thinking," she wrote in her statement. "[But] it discourages decent people from putting their hands up as candidates at all levels of government." "What made matters much worse," she added, "was the toxicity within the school board." 'The final straw' Among Kaplan-Myrth's other specific allegations against the board was the "weaponization" of code-of-conduct complaints she says were designed to silence or punish her. Since being elected in October 2022, Kaplan-Myrth has faced three code-of-conduct complaints. One failed to gain enough traction among other trustees, while another resulted in Kaplan-Myrth being disciplined in December 2023. A third, "vexatious" complaint was filed against Kaplan-Myrth this past April and concerned comments she made during a meeting that month, according to a letter her lawyer sent the Ministry of Education. Kaplan-Myrth also shared that letter with CBC. At the April meeting, Kaplan-Myrth spoke against a member of the board's equity committee wearing a keffiyeh, calling it an "act of aggression." The National Council of Canadian Muslims called Kaplan-Myrth to task, saying her statement was "an unfair and dangerous conflation of Palestinian culture and identity with aggression and violence." That third code-of-conduct complaint was "the final straw," Kaplan-Myrth wrote. "I cannot continue to participate on a board like this. It is driven by external forces with a goal to undo human rights and social justice work, [and it] is entrenched in internal toxicity." 'Vile Jew hate' Some of Kaplan-Myrth's concerns date back to the start of her term, when she called for a return to masking in classrooms. At one board meeting in late 2022, security and police had to remove some attendees for disrupting the proceedings. "Within a few days of that meeting, I had to quarantine my email and give up my OCDSB cell phone because of vile Jew hate and threatening messages," Kaplan-Myrt wrote. "When I approached the director and chair of the OCDSB, they failed to make an internal or a public statement that harassment would not be tolerated. My fellow trustees were silent." Kaplan-Myrth pointed to March 2023, when she said she was threatened for planning to wear a rainbow T-shirt, in support of transgender rights, at a board meeting. "My own family was murdered because they were Jews. These kinds of threats are more real to me because of intergenerational trauma," she wrote in her statement. "I nevertheless showed up to that meeting and continued to show up to meeting after meeting, asking repeatedly for my colleagues to understand the trauma of having to scan the room for threats. The only safety plan that was put into place was a process whereby I was supposed to send a text message to staff or to a friend when I arrived at the OCDSB building, to ask someone to walk out to my car to meet me." Scott told CBC she believes staff did everything reasonable to the reduce the amount of online vitriol Kaplan-Myrth was exposed to. "I think from both [a] physical standpoint in terms of a security plan and also online to the greatest extent that we possibly could, [we] gave our very best attempts to support the trustee," Buffone added. Kaplan-Myrth also criticized the board for what she said was a failure to distinguish between "legitimate" constituents and "nefarious actor[s]." Scott said that while there have been campaigns of disinformation and misinformation aimed at the board, she's not so sure they have actually shaped trustees' decisions, as Kaplan-Myrth has alleged. "We have a good group of trustees who for the most part do their homework, consider a lot of different potential points of view, a lot of different information and we have a first-rate staff who provide us with all of the internal information that we need," Scott said. Asked if there was anything the board could have done differently to ensure Kaplan-Myrth stayed on, Scott said it's always difficult to know. "Hindsight sometimes gives you hints, but it's hard to point out specific things that would have made a difference. I mean, anytime when you're dealing with people — and we deal with a lot: members of the public, members of our staff and each other — there are often times when you look back and say I could have done that differently, except if you did it differently, maybe the same thing would still have happened.
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
Northvolt to Stop Production at End of June Without Buyer
Bankrupt battery maker Northvolt AB will stop production at its last remaining factory in northern Sweden at the end of June if it fails to find a buyer before then, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The plant in Skelleftea has been running one production line making cells for truckmaker Scania CV AB ever since a court-appointed trustee in Sweden put the group's business and assets up for sale in March. So far a buyer has not materialized.
