NOTE: A list of the animal related organizations receiving funds can
be found at:
http://www.helmsleytrust.org/grants/other-grants/ New York Times
Trustees Begin to Parcel Leona Helmsley’s Estate
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: April 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/nyregion/22helmsley.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion The first $136 million from the hotelier Leona Helmsley’s disputed
multibillion-dollar estate has been distributed, trustees announced on
Tuesday, but the bulk went to medical centers instead of dogs.
Only $1 million of the estate, valued at about $5 billion, was donated
to the care of dogs, which Mrs. Helmsley had designated as her primary
beneficiary.
“This is a trifling and embarrassingly small amount,” said Wayne
Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. “Mrs.
Helmsley’s wishes are clearly being subverted.”
After Mrs. Helmsley’s death in 2007, it was revealed that she had
drafted a mission statement four years earlier listing two specific
priorities for the distribution of her estate. The first was helping
the poor, which she struck from the document a year later. The second
was to provide for the care of dogs, although she added
“and such
other charitable activities as the trustees shall determine.”
In February, a Manhattan judge ruled that
the trustees had sole
discretion in disbursing her assets and that the entire estate did not
have to go to the dogs. Mrs. Helmsley, whose husband Harry was a real estate magnate, also
left $12 million to her own Maltese, Trouble. The disclosure that
Trouble was the largest named beneficiary in the will prompted death
threats against the dog.
Another judge reduced Trouble’s trust fund to $2 million; the dog’s
security costs the estate $100,000 a year. (The judge also negotiated
a $6 million settlement with two of Mrs. Helmsley’s grandchildren who
were explicitly left out of her will.)
The grants on Tuesday represented a fraction of the estate.
Mr. Pacelle of the Humane Society said, “We are extremely disappointed
that less than 1 percent of the allocation announced is going to
animal-related organizations, and only one-tenth of 1 percent is going
to animal welfare organizations.”
“We are in touch,” he continued, “with the interested parties and are
hoping to have a satisfactory resolution — a much larger percentage
than 1 percent.”
The biggest beneficiary was a digestive diseases center at New
York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, which received $40
million. Mount Sinai Medical Center received $25 million to create a
Helmsley Center to study the electrical properties of cells and
tissues and $10 million for a Helmsley Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Center.
The $1 million for animal rights and welfare was divided equally among
10 charities, including the A.S.P.C.A. and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
An additional 43 grants were distributed to educational, conservation
and anti-poverty programs.
Among about $15 million to health care groups in South Dakota was $3.5
million for Abbott House Foundation, which runs a center for victims
of sex abuse. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation received $2.5
million, and $2 million was given to endow a scholarship at the
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. The National
Geographic Society received $750,000, and City Harvest,
Citymeals-on-Wheels, Common Ground, the Doe Fund and South Brooklyn
Legal Services each received $200,000.
The trustees of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
are Mrs. Helmsley’s brother, Alvin Rosenthal; two of her grandsons,
Walter and David Panzirer; one of her lawyers, Sandor Frankel; and her
friend John Codey.
The trustees, in a prepared statement, said,
“Throughout their lives,
the Helmsleys were committed to helping others, through the
innovations of medical research.” They did not address the controversy
over dogs.
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