Rip off

I was looking at some older posts yesterday and came across this old one about Leona Helmsley bequeathing her billions of dollars to the care and welfare of dogs. All that money going to saving dogs sounded a little too good to be true, and so it was.

Apparently, by last week, judges, lawyers and trustees had managed to whittle down that $5 billion bounty to a mere $1 million which will be divided between ten different dog related organizations, all of them, except for the ASPCA, dedicated to training dogs to assist people.

The rest of the money seems destined for human related endeavours.

The Helmsley money is supposed to be managed and distributed by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. According the to the press, when this news first broke about a year ago, the mission statement for the Trust was that its money go to "purposes related to the provision of care for dogs," along with other charities.

I took a peek at the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust homepage and lo and behold, any statement to that effect has been removed - if it was ever there. Now it mostly just talks about giving money to the field of human medicine.

And to cap it off, what must have Leona really rolling in her grave and screaming profanities about the hired help is the fact that even though she left $12 million to her dog, Trouble, the little guy only got $2 million of it while two of her grandkids, whom she had intentionally left out of her will, went to court and managed to get themselves $6 million.

That's it, of course. Dogs can't represent themselves in court so they'll always get the shorter end of the stick.

I have to wonder, what's the point of writing a will if the people entrusted with carrying it out can change it as they wish? I know a lot of people will think that giving $5 billion dollars to dogs in need is way too extravagant, though of course those same people probably wouldn't bat an eye if she had spent that money on, say, AIG or GM stock, in which case it would be practically worthless by now. When it comes down to it, it was her money and, as long as it wasn't illegal, she should have been allowed to do with it as she saw fit. She could've burnt it if she wanted.

The trustees, lawyers and judges didn't have to give the whole amount to dogs in need but it seems counter to the spirit of Leona's wishes that they gave so little.

More details here.