The four men managing billionaire Leona Helmsley’s estate — including two of her grandsons — say New York’s attorney general wants to cheat them out of nearly $90 million.
In new court papers the executors gripe that it’s “manifestly unfair” and “unreasonable” to slash their fee from a shared $100 million to as little as $10 million because of their haphazard time records.
The hotel heiress’ will specifically states that the executors shouldn’t be paid the usual fee of 4 percent, or roughly $200 million, based on a percentage of her $5.4 billion estate.
Helmsley earned the nickname, The Queen of Mean, for the nasty way she treated her hired help. She famously left $12 million to her Maltese dog, Trouble, when she died in 2007 at 87.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the executors in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court in 2014 seeking the reduction on behalf of charities that are slated to receive most of Helmsley’s fortune.
The AG’s “proposed ‘hours times rate’ calculation is nothing more than self-serving arithmetic simply designed to grossly underpay the executors for their services,” says Jerome Levine, an attorney for two of the executors, Helmsley’s grandsons David and Walter Panzirer.
The other two executors are Helmsley’s former attorney, Sandor Frankel, and a friend, John Codey.
The executors complain that the hours they recorded over nine years of estate work don’t include “an unending sea of experts and candidates for services, reading of documents, reading and sending of emails and other correspondence.”
A judge will determine how much the executors should be paid.