Lawyer Led Astor's Son Astray in $60M Fraud Says Ex-Jury Holdout (a Lawyer)
Anthony Marshall repeatedly took advantage the failing mental abilities of his elderly mother, Brooke Astor, diverting millions from the legendary New York socialite’s estate, a jury decided yesterday.
But he did so under the influence of advisers including a lawyer who also was convicted, Francis Morrissey Jr., a former holdout juror who eventually voted to convict tells Bloomberg.
“Nothing of this sort happened until Morrissey entered the scene,” Judi DeMarco, 46, a lawyer who works for Bloomberg, tells the news agency. “Maybe he was duped into doing a lot of things and led astray by Morrissey,” she says of Marshall, who is 85.
Prosecutors contended Marshall—who himself is—siphoned some $60 million from the nearly $200 million estate of his mother, who died in 2007 at age 105, in order to provide for his wife, Charlene, if she survived him. Until he and Morrissey changed Astor’s will, so Marshall would get the $60 million outright, he was to receive 7 percent a year income and the principal would go to charity after his death, explains Bloomberg.
Defense lawyers—who plan to appeal the convictions—say Astor was lucid when she willed money to her son, and he had power to give himself gifts while she was alive because he held her power of attorney, reports the Associated Press.
DeMarco says the power of attorney troubled her, but after initially holding out she eventually agreed to convict Marshall on some counts because “there were mounds and mounds of evidence,” she tells Bloomberg.
Marshall was found innocent of accusations that he had improperly taken a commission on the sale of a valuable Childe Hassam painting owned by his mother and falsifying business records. He was found guilty of grand larceny, a scheme to defraud and 12 other counts for giving himself an unauthorized $1 million pay increase for managing his mother’s money; using her money to maintain a property in Maine owned by his wife; and taking two art works worth $250,000 and $300,000 from her home.
Morrissey, who is 66, was convicted of a scheme to defraud, forging Astor’s name on a will amendment and three conspiracy counts.
When Marshall and Morrissey are sentenced in December both face likely prison time and Marshall could get as much as 25 years, the AP says. Each is now free on $100,000 bail.
Additional coverage:
City Room (New York Times): “The Forewoman of the Astor Jury Weighs In”
Updated at 2:10 p.m. to link to New York Times blog post.
