Sisters of late NY philanthropist’s sons are being sued ‘after taking their ailing father to a Baltimore hospital, where they let him change his $70 million will to benefit them – while their mother was barred from seeing him alone.
Thomas E. Hales was moved to a Baltimore hospital for the last months of his life ‘with the apparent intention of getting Mr. Hales to change his estate planning documents’ Leanne Hales is now suing her ‘torturous’ brothers for access to family books
A New York millionaire was separated from his wife and his two sons were isolated in a hospital without cellphones after getting the philanthropist to change his will in their favor, their sister has alleged.
Thomas E. Hales was transferred by his sons William and Terence Hales from Westchester to a Baltimore hospital in the last months of his life “for the express purpose of changing Mr. Hales’ estate plan documents,” according to a lawsuit brought by Leanne. Hells.
Mrs Hales alleged that her brothers acted like ‘tyrants’, their mother forbidding Alice to see her 60-year-old husband alone, ‘putting him in a chair in the corner of his hospital room.’
The suit also claims that Alice was barred from using a private jet to fly to Baltimore due to cost concerns — and was instead ordered to travel by car.
Leanne alleged that the pair had used ‘financial threats and coercion and punishment … to … anyone … raising any questions or requesting any information’ about family finances since their father’s death in 2020.
Hales, who lived with his wife in Westchester, amassed a $70 million fortune by investing in and growing Union State Bank from about $23 million to $3 billion in assets before its $575 million merger with Key Bank in 2007.
Leanne Hales is suing her ‘abusive’ brothers for access to family books
Thomas and Alice Hales were married for 60 years before the billionaire died in 2020
When his health deteriorated in 2015, William and Terrance falsely claimed their father needed a ‘tweak’ of his medication and he was transferred to a hospital in Baltimore, according to court filings.
Once at the hospital William and Terence allegedly asked their father to change his will.
The new would make the Hales the ‘de facto’ head of family wealth ‘with extensive control and power’ despite creating ‘zero’ of their family assets.
The sons also changed Hales’ state residence from New York to Maryland to avoid New York state estate taxes after his death, Ms. Hales alleged.
William and Terence forced Hales to change her residency status, apply for a driver’s license and register to vote ‘even though she had neither the physical nor the mental capacity to do so,’ she says.
‘The fact that Mr Hales – an industry titan and wonderful, personable man – was denied his own cell phone so he could speak privately with his wife, friends and family [the brothers’] Involvement, control, and monitoring speak volumes,’ the Manhattan Supreme Court filing states.
Ms. Hales is suing her brothers to open the books for the Hales Family Foundation and separate trusts set up for the Hales’ six children, she said, pleading no contest to the new estate document.
Ellis and Thomas built a reputation as generous philanthropists, spending their ‘considerable fortune’ on Hudson Valley institutions such as Iona College and Phelps Hospital.
Liane said in court documents that the charitable donation for the treatment was in part inspired by Mr. Hales’ double lung transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center in 2007 that helped Hales survive pulmonary fibrosis.
William Hales is accused of driving his father to a Baltimore hospital and denying him a cellphone before he died.
Terrence Hales spotted with his philanthropist father at a pulmonary fibrosis fundraiser
Leanne Hales was her father’s primary caregiver before he was evacuated to hospital at the end of his life
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