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Tony Bennett’s Daughters Accuse Brother of Mismanaging Family Trust and Paying Himself $2.6 Million in New Lawsuit: Details
Tony Bennett’s daughters are accusing their brother of mismanaging the family trust and paying himself $2.6 million in a new court filing, claiming lack of transparency and misuse of funds.
Tony Bennett’s daughters, Antonia and Johanna Bennett, are accusing their brother Danny of mismanaging their late father’s funds for years and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the family trust. The new accusations came as part of Antonia and Johanna’s response to Danny’s November filing, seeking to transfer their June 2024 petition to the surrogate’s court or dismiss it.
In their newest filing on January 3, Antonia and Johanna asked the court to deny Danny’s request, saying they have “serious concerns” about the “mismanagement” of his role as trustee.
“Danny acted in multiple, conflicting fiduciary capacities for an extended period prior to Tony’s death and took (for himself and his children) significant funds from the Family Trust,” their filing, accessed by People, says. Both daughters are beneficiaries of The Tony Bennett 1994 Family Trust, as is their brother Dae, while Danny is the sole trustee.
“Moreover, as publicized by Danny to various media outlets, at some point prior to Tony’s death, Tony entered a phase of diminished capacity, which means Tony was no longer able to act as co-trustee, leaving Danny to serve as sole trustee of the Family Trust with no oversight," the filing adds.
Antonia and Johanna’s filing argues they have a right to an accounting of Danny’s actions both before and after Tony’s death, as he was essentially acting unsupervised. They feel as though there’s been a “lack of transparency.”
“[Tony] expressed a clear intention and direction in his estate plans that all four of his children be treated equally,” their filing says.
The singer’s daughters allege that Danny cut checks using trust funds “as he saw fit” and that in 2022, he made “multiple gifts to himself” using trust funds that amounted to $200,700. They also claim he took advances of $50,000 each month on top of the commission he earned as Tony’s business manager as early as 2021, despite things not being officially agreed upon until 2022.
In 2022, Danny helped orchestrate a sale of Tony’s assets to Iconoclast, which he claimed to have done because the singer was running out of money. But the daughters’ filing says that, per records, Tony still had millions of dollars when the deal was made. Despite claiming their father was in financial trouble, the daughters say Danny continued to make gifts to himself and his children with Family Trust assets. The filing says Danny’s company, RPM, received almost $2.6 million in commissions, while Antonia and Johanna have each only received $245,000.
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