Reclusive Heiress Leaves $400M, None to Friends, Family
The reclusive copper mining heiress Huguette Clark, who died in May at the age of 104, left her estranged family with almost nothing, instead, electing to remit most of her fortune to her closest friend—her nurse.
Clark's decision, though radical, would make sense if it wasn't for her idiosyncratic adulthood, marked with constant retreatism and peculiar behavior. From her 30s onward, Clark became introverted, antisocial and barricaded herself traditional socialite events, according to her New York Times obituary.
Clark lived hospital room for decades and became inexplicably attached to her French doll collection. Even after she was permitted to leave the hospital, she elected to stay. Clark's 52-acre $24 million Connecticut estate languished while she lived quietly under in a Lower East Side hospital under an alias, according to an MSNBC report.
That's where Clark met her nurse and closest friend, a Filipino-born mother of three named Hadassah Peri, who spent night and day at her bedise. The nurse was paired with Clark by chance, according to the New York Post. The Post reports says Peri spent 20 years living in solitary with the heiress and became the daughter Clark never had.
Peri was showered with gifts as she sat bedside during Clark's last days, earning a $131,000 annual salary. Peri was bought a $204,000 2001 Bentley Arnage and a $42,000 Lincoln Navigator by Clark, which are parked in front of the three-story waterfront home in Manhattan Beach, one of the five homes Peri owns because of Clark.
But that's not all nurse Peri was awarded. In Clark's final gift to her beloved nurse, Peri will inherit $33.6 million as a part of Clarks will, and, as a testament to their companionship, Clark left her priceless French doll collection to Peri.
The obscene charitable expenses that Clark has disseminated have sparked some controversy, particularly from the district and state attorney, who are focusing an investigation on the management of Clark's $400 million fortune. Clark's lawyer Wallce Bock, 79, and her accountant Irving Kamsler, 64 have been ordered by a judge to account for every cent they ever spent while managing Clark's finances during the last 14 years of her life.
The investigation comes after a reported $1 million per month spending spree for a woman that never left the hospital. The expenditures will be investigated by the New York County Public Administrator, who will examine the hundreds of millions spent during the last years of Clark's life.
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