His influence spread far and wide from his humble beginnings as the son of a Greek immigrant who forsook college to help his dad run a small East Baltimore bakery. That petition claimed William J. Paterakis and Venice Paterakis Smith, two of John Paterakis Sr.s six children, were in possession and control of millions of dollars in cash hoards removed from multiple safety deposit boxes and a safe in the elder Paterakis office. He pleaded guilty to violating state campaign finance law after paying in excess of state contribution limits for a poll for former Councilwoman Helen Holton in 2007. A consent judgment filed Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court ended a messy, four-year legal battle between Roula Paterakis, the widow of the man who turned H&S Bakery from a family business into a conglomerate, and his six grown children, other family members and a business associate. The $1.5 million payment not only smooths the way for the propertys sale to CRBE, but will benefit H&S for years to come. an IRA worth more than $500,000 and . "A billionaire could die with much of his income sheltered.". This week, the Baltimore Sun announced that Mrs. Paterakis has withdrawn her lawsuit against her stepchildren and a business associate of her husbands over her inheritance. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Eventually, he invested in real estate development, such as Harbor East, which reshaped the citys waterfront skyline. Jeffrey E. Nusinov, who represents Bill Paterakis and Smith, said Roula Paterakis suit, which initially sought a third of what she said was her husbands $1 billion fortune, has been chipped away over the years to almost nothing. Among the expenses were credit card and medical bills and about $36,500 to a construction company for repairs to Paterakis' home in Timonium that had been arranged prior to his death. The family denied the allegations and called Roula Paterakis lawsuit desperate., This law suit (sic) appears to be no more than a desperate attempt by Roula to obtain more money than she was left in JPs Will, William Paterakis, John Paterakis Sr. son and chairman of H&S Bakery, wrote in a signed letter to employees in November 2017. The Herald said that made him the 39th richest Greek-American in the country. In the final month of her husbands life, Roula Paterakis sought to increase her inheritance, the suit alleges. In the following six years until now, the citys PILOT agreement has (depending on your point of view) saved a prominent family $24 million or deprived the city now facing the layoff of hundreds of school teachers because of a looming $130 million budget deficit of the same amount. (You Tube), There was, however, a proviso in the PILOT agreement that said the city would receive 25% of excess net proceeds after the developer achieves a 15% cumulative return on equity.. The way to reach here was not easy at all. However, his political largesse landed him in trouble in 2010. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. That makes the 650,000 square-foot property worth about $312 million. In September 2014, for example, about $23 million of assets were transferred into a newly created irrevocable trust, the lawsuit said. That would free the buildings owners of any future profit-sharing. He was 87 when he died on Oct. 16, 2016, from complications of a bone marrow disease. Daily Record Business Writer Paterakis' will, submitted to the Baltimore County Register of Wills on Oct. 24, 2016, offers no details on how he wanted his estate distributed, referring instead to a trust that apparently includes those terms. Net worth: $24.5 billion Source of wealth: Hearst Corporation About 67 family members share the fortune that William Randolph Hearst created when he took over the San Francisco Examiner in the . By: Steve Lash (One of Mister Johns favorite adages, according to a profile by Rafael Alvarez, was: Always be involved in whatever you can politically, but never run for public office.). Subscribers to Maryland Family Law Update can access the digital edition archive. ANALYSIS: The owners of a trophy high-rise devise a plan to flip the property and keep its 95% tax abatement, Above: The blue-chip, glass-clad Legg Mason Building at Harbor East. Walmart's success has kept the family from Arkansas now in its third generation wealthier than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the two mega-billionaires of our era, and almost $100 billion ahead of. (See below the list for the full methodology.) Our source scoffed at this explanation, saying, I bet its what George Philippou offered them, referring to the longtime lawyer for H&S Properties, who is married to the youngest daughter of the late John Paterakis. She was not able to get beyond the fact that her allegations were frivolous, he said of Roula Paterakis. John Paterakis Sr., who died in October 2016 at age 87, was an iconic Baltimore businessman and political player. When John Paterakis died, the value of his assets that went through probate was only $200,000, but his net worth was nearly a billion dollars, if not more. He and Roula Passon began dating in 1997, she moved in with him in 2001 and they married in 2015, according to her lawsuit. After supporting Dixon during the mayoral primary (which she lost to Pugh), the family switched allegiance and funneled $58,000 to Pugh mostly in $6,000 chunks, the legal limit, and most of it coming on a single day, July 22, 2016. These cookies do not store any personal information. The complaint is the latest salvo in a family feud over the estate of Paterakis, who transformed his fathers small bakery into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate and an underutilized waterfront parcel into the upscale Harbor East neighborhood. (The Daily Record/File Photo). It is not. A final count, involving what Roula Paterakis said was her husbands promise to leave her $20 million, was dismissed. The suit alleges that Paterakis' children have withheld assets including millions of dollars in "cash hoards" that their father kept in safes and bank accounts. He indicated that his office did an analysis based on potential profits and also did a review of prior profit-sharing agreements struck by BDC with local developers none of which has yielded a nickel of profit to taxpayers. [Paterakis pleads guilty, will pay $26,000 in fines]. Unfortunately, and for personal reasons that I have not been authorized to share with you, Mrs. Paterakis determined that she should settle this matter as she has done and withdraw her action, her attorney, Arnold M. Weiner, said Wednesday. The complaint filed Thursday against Roula Paterakis, who married the businessman about a year before his death although they had lived together since 2001, seeks to lift the cloud she created by her own suit over his estate. She has filed a claim to one-third of that estate as allowed by statute. He turned the family business, H&S Bakery Inc., into one of the city's most. According to Roula Paterakis' lawsuit, that figure should be much greater. Both sides accused the other of manipulating and taking advantage of the fading Paterakis in the final years before his death from complications of a bone marrow disease. In life as in death, John Paterakis' wealth is not publicly known. "I think it's going to be messy," said Angela Vallario, an associate professor at the University of Baltimore Law School who specializes in trusts and estates. The transfer of assets into trusts was not a sham, as she argued, and they are not part of his probate estate. The suit alleges that the following summer, he discussed divorcing her with an attorney, but the attorney concluded that John Paterakis was too weak to go through such a battle. Paterakis widow ends multimillion-dollar lawsuit against his children, Video Series: Off the Record with Sloane Brown, YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS/PRIVACY POLICY, Marris Hoffee and Jamie Ferguson | Mid-Shore Pro Bono, Sheila McDonald, Marciel Rojas Rosario, Derek L. Simmons, Chick Zoll and Michael Latimer | Board of Child Care. These items are $647,500 in life insurance, an. flips of the buildings ownership) during the seven years remaining of the PILOT. Subscribers to The Daily Record can access the digital edition archive. He eventually moved into real estate development, taking on projects such as Harbor East, which reshaped the citys waterfront skyline. Paterakis made me a believer, former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said at the event, recalling her initial opposition to the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront being built in Harbor East. "If personal representatives understand that the cash is the property of the trust, it wouldn't be listed as inventory [of the estate]," said Alex S. Tanouye, a Bethesda-based trust and estate lawyer. 2017 - 2023 Tobin OConnor Concino P.C. That at least is the view from Baltimore Circuit Court, where his widow Roula Paterakis sued the six children from his previous marriage on Nov. 13 for her share of what she says is a $1 billion fortune. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com. (1213people.com). The suit describes the magnate as dependent on round-the-clock nursing care after 2013. In recent months, the family dispute has played out in multiple filings across various courthouses. A judge dismissed much of Roula Paterakis 's original. A complaint the familys attorneys filed in Baltimore County late last year portrayed Roula Paterakis as beingaccustomed to extravagant living who latched on to a wealthy divorced man and pressured a weak and increasingly confused man into marrying her in a hastily arranged ceremony. When questioned yesterday by The Brew, Cole explained the citys reasoning this way: When it [the PILOT] was approved, it was never anticipated that the city would see any real profit-sharing. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced by the family, who could not be reached for comment. Almost everyone in Maryland has eaten a piece of bread or a sandwich bun that came from a bakery belonging to John Paterakis. Adam Bednar covers real estate and development for The Daily Record. A Maryland appeals court has ordered a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge to reconsider portions of a lawsuit filed by the second wife of the late H&S Bakery owner John Paterakis Sr., which alleged the children from his first marriage conspired to prevent their stepmother from inheriting millions of dollars. Additionally, they defended the trusts that Roula Paterakis claimed were shams as above board and part of their fathers estate planning. The widow of John Paterakis, the bakery magnate and Harbor East developer, has withdrawn her claim to a greater share of what she said was his $1 billion fortune, leaving the bulk of it in the hands of the children from his first marriage. We will see if Roula continues to pursue the crumbs.. The opinion cited a ruling this June by the Maryland Court of Appeals in another case, which recognized interference as a wrongful act. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. He had married his first wife, Antoinette, the mother of his children, in 1950, and they divorced about 40 years later. A Baltimore County judge has dismissed the majority of a lawsuit brought by the second wife of John Paterakis Sr. accusing his familyof withholding her rightful share of the baking magnate and developers estate. The Paterakis family is determined to resist her effort and to establish the truth about what occurred and to vindicate the family's good name., Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Mayor Pugh ratified the deal without comment yesterday. It set off a series of charges and countercharges of scandalous behavior of the children raiding cash from their fathers safe deposit boxes as he lay gravely ill in a hospital, of the second wife spending lavishly like a material girl and taking advantage of his frailty late in life until it was dismissed in June 2018. He pleaded guilty to violating state campaign finance law after paying in excess of state contribution limits for a poll for former Councilwoman Helen Holton in 2007. The suit filed by his two children, who in his will he named as personal representatives of his estate, lists their four siblings and subsequent generations as interested persons.. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The Brew has learned that John Paterakis Sr., Baltimores billionaire bakery mogul, real estate developer and political powerbroker, died today at Johns Hopkins Hospital. We express no view as to whether it does or does not, the special appeals court opinion said. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Paterakis married Antoinette "Toni" Apostolou, in 1950; they had six children and divorced about 40 years later. At issue is reconciling what Roula Paterakis' lawsuit says is "cash hoards" that her late husband maintained in an office safe, bank accounts and safe deposit boxes, with what has been filed in Orphans' Court, which makes no mention of such stashes, she said. From his death in 2016 until now, his widow was involved in a legal dispute with the personal representatives of his estate, namely one of his sons and one of his daughters from his first marriage. But the siblings suit casts doubt on that document, saying it is not signed or witnessed. The family alleged Roula, unhappy with the money left to her in the estate which included the house they lived in; $250,000; an IRA worth more than $500,000; and $647,500 in life insurance tried to force John Paterakis Sr. to leave her $5 million. Should be much greater easy at all made him the 39th richest Greek-American in the.! 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