Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 - August 20, 2007) is an American businessman, known for his flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior, earning him the nickname of Queen of Mean . Joyce Beber, co-founder of Beber Silverstein Group, persuaded Helmsley to replace the title with the Queen of the Palace Hotel instead.
After accusations of not paying were made by the contractor hired to upgrade Helmsley's home in Connecticut, he was investigated and convicted of embezzlement of federal income tax and other crimes in 1989. Despite initially receiving a sixteen year sentence, he was required to serve only nineteen years. months in jail and two months under house arrest. During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We do not pay taxes, only small people pay taxes," a saying that identifies it for the rest of its life.
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Leona Helmsley was born Lena Mindy Rosenthal in Marbletown, New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants, Ida (nÃÆ' Â © e Popkin), a housewife, and a hatmaker Morris Rosenthal. His family moved to Brooklyn when he was a girl, and moved again six times before settling in Manhattan. After resigning from Abraham Lincoln High School to seek his fortune, he changed his name several times in a short period of time - from Lee Roberts, Mindy Roberts, and Leni Roberts - before finally leaving by Leona Mindy Roberts and having his family's name legally transformed into Roberts.
Roberts's first husband was lawyer Leo Panzirer, whom he divorced in 1952. Their only son was Jay (1940-1982), who had four children with his wife, Mimi. Leona was twice married and divorced from her second husband, the garment industry executive Joseph Lubin. After some time at a sewing factory, he joined the New York real estate company, where he eventually became vice president.
Roberts is a chain smoker, consuming a few packs a day. He later claimed that he appeared on billboards advertising for Chesterfield cigarettes, but his claim remained unfounded.
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Career as a hotelier
In 1968, when Roberts worked as a condominium broker, he met and started his engagement with married real estate entrepreneur Harry Helmsley. Two years later, he joined one of Harry's brokerage firms - Brown Harris Stevens - as senior vice president. By that time, she had become a millionaire in her own right. Harry divorced his wife for 33 years and married Roberts on April 8, 1972. The marriage may have saved his career, as some tenants had sued him a year earlier for forcing them to buy a condominium. They won, and he was forced not only to compensate the tenants but also to give them a three-year lease. His real estate license was also suspended, so he focused on running Harry's burgeoning hotel empire.
It is said that under his influence, Harry started the conversion program of apartment buildings into condominiums. He then concentrated on the hotel industry, building the Helmsley Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue. Together, Helmsleys built a New York real estate empire that included 230 Park Avenue, the Empire State Building, and Tudor City apartment complex on the East Side, and Helmsley-Spear Inc., their management and rental business. The couple also develops properties that include Helmsley Palace Hotel, New York Helmsley Hotel, Park Lane Hotel, and hotels in Florida and other states. In early 1989, twenty-three hotels in the chain were directly controlled by Leona Helmsley.
Helmsley is featured in an advertising campaign depicting himself as a "queen" demanding that nothing but the best for his guests. The slightest mistake is usually the reason to shoot, and Helmsley is known for shouting insults and dirty words to targeted employees right before they get fired.
On March 31, 1982, the only child of Helmsley, Jay Panzirer, died of a heart attack from an arrhythmia. The widow of her son, who lives on a property owned by Helmsley, receives notice of eviction immediately after his funeral. Helmsley manages to sue his real estate for the money and property he claims he has borrowed, and he finally gets $ 146,092.
Confidence tax avoidance
Although Helmsley's net worth of more than $ 1 billion, they are known for disputing payments to contractors and vendors. In 1983, Helmsley bought Dunnellen Hall, a 21-room mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, for use as a weekend retreat. It costs $ 11 million, but Helmsleys wants to make it more luxurious. The work included a $ 1 million dance floor, a silver clock, and a mahogany desk. The renovation bill reached $ 8 million, which Helmsley reluctantly paid. A group of contractors sued Helmsley for not paying; Helmsleys eventually paid off most of the debt to the contractor.
In 1985, during the litigation in respect of the lawsuit, the contractors revealed that most of their work was illegally billed to Helmsley hotels as a business expense. The contractor sends a bunch of fake invoices to the New York Post to prove that Helmsley is trying to avoid tax liability. The resulting story Post leads to a federal criminal investigation. Jeremiah McCarthy, executive engineer of Helmsley, also alleged that Leona repeatedly demanded that she sign an invoice to collect personal expenses to Helmsley-Spear and, when McCarthy refused to do so, exploded with a cruel explosion, shouting, "You're not mine. signed what I said to sign. "In 1988, then-US. Lawyer Rudy Giuliani indicted Helmsleys and two of their colleagues over several tax-related charges, as well as extortion.
The trial was adjourned until the summer of 1989 due to various motions by Helmsley's lawyers, mostly related to Harry's health. She began to look weak shortly after her initial relationship with Leona several years earlier, and recently had a stroke over a pre-existing heart condition. In the end, he was mentally and physically ruled unworthy to stand trial, and Leona would face the charges alone.
In the trial, former Helmsley-Spear executive Paul Ruffino said he refused to sign a false invoice charging the company for work done at the Connecticut mansion. Ruffino, initially engaged to help Harry through the arm of the Hospitality Management Services, said that Leona fired him on several different occasions for refusing to sign the bill, only for Harry usually telling him to ignore it and get back to work. One other key witness was a former housekeeper at Helmsley's house, Elizabeth Baum, who told Leona telling him, "We do not pay taxes, only small people pay taxes." Leona denied saying this. However, at the time, the trial had highlighted his abusive behavior and micromanagement against family members, employees, contractors, and even senior executives. Former employees testified at the trial "about how they worried about her, with one reminiscent of how she casually fired her when she was dressed." Most legal observers feel that Helmsley's hostile personalities, arrogance, and "bare greed" alienate the jury.
On August 30, Helmsley was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to deceive the United States, three tax evasion, three false private tax filing, sixteen amounts of aid in corporate tax returns and fraudulent partnerships, and ten counts of email fraud. He was, however, released from extortion - a charge that could potentially send him to jail for the rest of his life. Helmsley was even sentenced to sixteen years in prison, which was eventually reduced when all but eight of the sentences were handed down. However, when it was clear that he was going to jail, Helmsley fainted outside the courthouse. She was later diagnosed with heart problems and hypertension.
The new lawyer Helmsley, who is defended to appeal the verdict, is Alan Dershowitz. After the appeal, which resulted in a reduction in sentence, he was ordered to report to prison on the tax day, April 15, 1992. The Registered Bureau of the Federal Bureau (BOP) number 15113-054, and he was released from detention on January 26, 1994, nineteen months.
After prison
In recent years Helmsley has apparently been spent in isolation, especially after Harry died in 1997. He abandoned all of his wealth, including Helmsley hotels, the Helmsley Palace, and the Empire State Building, which is estimated to be worth more than $ 5 billion. Some of his friends include Patrick Ward, Imelda Marcos, Rodrigo Handall, the Noriega family, and Kathy and Rick Hilton. Article 2001
In 2002, Helmsley was sued by Charles Bell, a former employee who alleged that he was dismissed simply for being gay. The jury agreed and ordered Mrs. Helmsley to pay Bell $ 11.2 million in damages. A judge then reduced this amount to $ 554,000.
Although Helmsley has a reputation as a "Queen of Means", some consider him generous in charitable contributions after his sentence. After the 9/11 attacks, Helmsley donated $ 5 million to help the families of firefighters and the New York City police. Other contributions include $ 25 million to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for medical research.
Death
Leona Helmsley died of congestive heart failure at the age of 87, on August 20, 2007, at Dunnellen Hall, his summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Cardiovascular disease flows in his family, claiming the lives of his father, son and sister. After a week at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, he is buried next to Harry Helmsley in a tomb built for $ 1.4 million and set up at Ã,¾-acres at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Westchester County, New York. Among the typical features of the mausoleum are three stained glass windows embedded in the wall, in the style of Louis Tiffany, which shows the Manhattan sky.
Helmsley left most of his land - estimated at more than $ 4 billion - to Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. In addition to providing direct for his own dog in his will, he left a separate instruction that trust, now worth $ 5 to $ 8 billion, is used to benefit dogs. The Court has ruled that the Trust is not legally bound by wishes separated from the documents of Trust.
The will left the Maltese dog, Trouble, a $ 12 million trust fund. This amount is then reduced to $ 2 million as redundant to meet its objectives. The choice is the 3rd brand in the 2007 "Dumbest Moments in Business" magazine Fortune "101.
Difficulty living in Florida with Carl Lekic, general manager of Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel, with several death threats have been received. Lekic, caregiver of Trouble, claimed that $ 2 million would pay for the dog's maintenance for over 10 years - $ 100,000 annually for full-time security, $ 8,000 for maintenance and $ 1,200 for food. Lekic paid $ 60,000 per year in trust fees. "The problem died at the age of twelve in December 2010, with the rest of the funds being returned to Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.Although Helmsley's desire is to have a dog buried with him in the mausoleum, New York state law prohibits pet pruning in the grave of the man and the dog was then cremated.
Helmsley has four grandchildren. Two of them each receive $ 5 million in trust and $ 5 million in cash, provided they visit their father's grave site once a year. They sign the registration book will prove that they have visited the cemetery. Two other grandchildren, Craig and Meegan Panzirer, received nothing.
In a judgment (published on June 16, 2008), Manhattan Ruling Judge Renee Roth decides that Helmsley is mentally unfeasible when he executes his wishes. Therefore, the Court, in the midst of a settlement, reduced the $ 12 million trust fund to Animal Problems to $ 2 million. Of the $ 10 million originally inherited to Trouble, $ 4 million was given to the Charitable Trust, and $ 6 million was given to Craig and Meegan Panzirer, who had been deprived of his will. The decision requires Panzirers to remain silent about their disagreements with their grandmother and submit to court whatever documents they have about him. It has been alleged that they were removed from the will because they did not name one of their children after the last husband of Helmsley.
He left $ 15 million for his brother Alvin Rosenthal. Helmsley also left $ 100,000 to his driver, Nicholas Celea.
The "Queen of Mean"
Helmsley obtained the moniker "The Queen of Mean", reportedly inspired after an advertising campaign promoted him as "Queen of the Palace" of the Helmsley Palace Hotel. Helmsley is known by this nickname in the mainstream press.
Helmsley is known for his "employee tyranny". According to Alan Dershowitz, at breakfast with him at one of Helmsley's hotels, the waiter brought him a cup of tea with a little water spilled on the cup. He took the cup from her and hit it on the floor, then asked the maid to come down with her hands and knees and beg for her work. "In another explanation of Helmsley's behavior, he has a barbecue pit built for his home, a job done by Eugene Brennan, a personal friend of Jeremiah McCarthy, chief engineer of Helmsley-Spear. When the final bill came to $ 13,000, he refused to pay, citing the workmanship When McCarthy pleaded with him to honor the bill, to quote the help done to him and inform him that Brennan asked six children to support, Helmsley replied, "Why is not he wearing his pants? Then he will not need the money ".
In 1989, an unauthorized biography entitled The Queen of Mean: The Unofficial Biography of Leona Helmsley was published by Bantam Books (ISBN 978-0553285581). The 1990 TV Movie Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean starred Suzanne Pleshette as Leona and Lloyd Bridges as Harry. Pleshette was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the portrayal.
References
Further reading
- "Leona Helmsley". CourtTV. Archived from the original in 2007-09-30 . Retrieved 2007-05-15 .
- Maas, Jane (2013-01-29). Crazy Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the 1960s and beyond . St. Martin Griffin. ISBN: 9781250022011.
- Moss, Michael (1989-03-01). Palace Coup . Doubleday. ISBN: 978-0-385-24973-7.
- Peacock, Stephen (2003-12-02). Dick Hotel: Harlots, Starlets, Thief & amp; Sleaze . iUniverse. ISBNÃ, 978-0-595-30464-6 Ã, Author Steve Peacock is a former detective home of Helmsley Palace
External links
- topics.nytimes.com, Leona Helmsley
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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