London - A “jealous” accountant has lost a bitter court battle with his sister over a £3 million (R66.7m) secret fund set up by their Jewish father in case there was another Holocaust.
In a case that has “ripped their family apart’, Alan Hamilton was furious that his sister Carolyn was given twice as much money as he was from the trust, which was established by their father David in tax haven Lichtenstein.
In his desperate High Court bid to inherit more of the fortune made by their father – who arrived in Britain as a penniless refugee from the Nazis – he claimed it had been hidden offshore to evade tax.
But a judge has rejected his claims, ruling the fund was set up legitimately before Hamilton’s death in 2007, and did not constitute part of his estate to be divided equally.
Justice Henderson said in his judgment: “Alan stuck firmly to the story… that his father had from the 1960s onwards been routinely engaged in tax evasion.”
“Alan has a forceful and dominating character, and (although he denied it) is at times prone to be a bully and act aggressively, particularly if he does not get his way.”
“I do not believe he consciously set out to deceive the court, but his dispute with Carolyn is so bitter, and his jealousy of her so corrosive, that he has persuaded himself of the justice of his case, and shaped his vision and recollection of past events.”
Carolyn, a children’s rights lawyer and Unicef adviser who lives in North London, told the court: “To rip apart a family for this sake is incredibly sad. I think it shaming. [My father] did not believe Jews could ever be really safe and, with money in a neutral country he could access, he would be able to save his family, if necessary.”
Alan, who lives in the US, will keep his share of £1m (R22.2m) of the funds left in the overseas trust, while his sister will retain about £2.2m (R48.9m).
Daily Mail