KEY POINTS:
The 83-year-old son of Brooke Astor, the New York socialite and philanthropist who died in August, faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison following charges that he took advantage of his dying mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, to change her will and
enrich himself by tens of millions.
Anthony D. Marshall, known as a pillar of New York society with a background as a diplomat and a Tony award-winning Broadway theatre producer, found himself being accused in court earlier this week on a flurry of charges including falsifying records, scheming to defraud and grand larceny.
Marshall's lawyer, Francis Morrissey, also faces multiple charges, including the allegation that he forged Brooke Astor's signature on an amended will he drew up in 2002 and fooled two witnesses into thinking that the changes reflected her wishes.
Astor, who was 105 when she died, left a fortune estimated at just under US$198 million ($258.3 million). Under the terms of the 2002 will, which is being contested separately in probate court, Marshall would either inherit or gain personal control of all that money.
Discontent over Marshall's handling of his mother's affairs has been brewing for years, and led to a New York judge stripping him of his role about a year before she died and appointing Annette de la Renta, the wife of the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, as her legal guardian instead.
"As her financial adviser and her attorney, he was supposed to always act in her interest, and it was clear that he was not acting in her interest," New York's district attorney Robert Morgenthau said as he announced the charges against Marshall.
The criminal investigation, intriguingly, stemmed from complaints made by Marshall's son, Philip Marshall, who felt his father was not respecting Astor's commitment to financing several leading New York institutions. Among her beneficiaries were what she called New York City's "crown jewels" - the New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, the Bronx Zoo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Under the terms of the contested 2002 will, some US$66 million previously earmarked for charities was cut in half, with the balance going directly to Marshall. The indictment alleges that Marshall spirited artworks out of his mother's home, gave himself a million-dollar rise for serving as her financial adviser and spent his mother's money on extravagant items.
Marshall has protested his innocence, saying he was an effective financial manager of his mother's affairs for a quarter of a century.
Marshall's son Philip said he hoped "there is a way justice can be achieved without my father going to jail".
The New York press is speculating that the affair may end up with an old-fashioned deal, whereby Marshall restores the money to his mother's favourite causes, and the criminal case is dropped.
Astor gave US$200 million to New York institutions during her lifetime, living by the motto: "Money is like manure, it should be spread around."
- INDEPENDENT