Tony Bennett’s daughters, Antonia and Johanna Bennett, are accusing their brother Danny of misusing their late father’s wealth over the years and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the family trust. The new allegations come as part of Antonia and Johanna’s response to Danny’s November filing, which sought to transfer his June 2024 petition to the Surrogate’s Court or have it dismissed.
In their latest filing, dated January 3, Antonia and Johanna urged the court to deny Danny’s request, saying they have “serious concerns” about his “mismanagement” of his role as trustee.
Their filing, accessed by People, states, “Danny acted in multiple, conflicting fiduciary capacities for an extended period of time prior to Tony’s death and took significant funds (for himself and his children) from the family trust. ” Both daughters are beneficiaries of the Tony Bennett 1994 Family Trust, as is their brother Day, while Danny is the sole trustee.
“Further, as was publicized by Danny in various media outlets, at some time before Tony’s death, Tony had entered a phase of diminished capacity, meaning that Tony was no longer able to act as co-trustee. was not able to, leaving Danny to serve as sole trustee. Family trust without any oversight,” the filing said.
Antonia and Johanna’s filing argue that they have the right to an accounting of Danny’s actions before and after Tony’s death, as he was operating essentially unsupervised. He feels as if there has been a “lack of transparency”.
“(Tony) has expressed a clear intention and direction in his estate plans that all four of his children will be treated equally,” his filing said.
The singer’s daughters allege that Danny cut checks using the trust fund as he saw fit and that in 2022, he gave himself several gifts using the trust fund, amounting to $200,700. He also claims he took an advance of $50,000 per month on top of the commissions he earned as Tony’s business manager in early 2021, even though things weren’t officially agreed upon until 2022.
In 2022, Danny helps with the sale of Tony’s estate to Iconoclast, which he claims he did because the singer was running out of money. But the daughters’ filing says that, according to records, Tony still had millions of dollars in assets when the deal went through. Despite claiming that their father was in financial trouble, the daughters say that Danny continued to give gifts to himself and his children from the family trust assets. The filing states that Danny’s company, RPM, received approximately $2.6 million in commissions, while Antonia and Johanna each received only $245,000.
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