Staff bled $44 million in gifts from heiress

By Bill Dedman

Investigative Reporter, msnbc.com

NEW YORK — The nurses, doctors, hospital, attorney and accountant for the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark coerced or influenced her to give them more than $44 million in gifts, the executor of her estate claimed in a remarkable legal petition filed Tuesday in Manhattan. The executor asked the court to order all the money to be repaid.

The executor doesn't deny that Clark authorized nearly all of these gifts, relentlessly writing hundreds of checks in her own steady hand until her eyesight gave out at the age of 102.

The accusations were vigorously denied by Clark's attorney, whose representative said, "To suggest that these gifts were not from Mrs. Clark's generous heart is to denigrate the person who gave these gifts, as well as the recipients who cared for her with their love."

 The most-favored object of Clark's generosity was her registered nurse, Hadassah Peri, an immigrant from the Philippines who had been randomly assigned in 1991 by a home healthcare agency. For 20 years Peri was the daytime private nurse, working 12-hour shifts, five or six days a week, taking care of Clark's health, her hygiene and her purchases of dolls at auctions. She was paid at an annual salary of $131,040. In addition, she and her family received $31 million in gifts, including the money to buy five homes, jewelry, dolls and a Stradivarius violin (though not Clark's best Stradivarius).

 Another $6.3 million, including a $6 million painting by Manet, was given to Beth Israel Medical Center, which allowed Clark to live in the hospital although she was quite healthy for most of her last two decades.

Clark's two physicians and their families received gifts of $3.1 million.

The night nurse and her family got $1.1 million.

The accountant, $375,000.

The attorney, just $60,000 — in addition to $1,850,000 given after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for a security system for the attorney's daughter's Israeli community on the West Bank.

All of these amounts were gifts on top of salaries.

If the judge in Surrogate's Court agrees with the executor, all will have to be repaid.

The legal petition filed late Tuesday afternoon, available here from msnbc.com, is an attempt to claw back into the estate millions that the executor claims was bled away by undue influence or fraud.

Update: On Wednesday the executor filed another petition, accusing Clark's attorney of malpractice and breaches of fiduciary duty, possibly opening the door for some of the claims to be covered by professional liability insurance policies. The executor asks the court to require the attorney and his law firm to return all legal fees paid by Clark from 1997 until her death.