How Far Would You Go to Gain a Trust Litigation Advantage?

According to prosecutors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a former MIT professor and wealthy businessman named John J. Donovan Sr. “staged his own shooting to gain an advantage in a legal battle with his own children for control of trusts that he claims are worth at least $180 million. He’s accused of trying to get back at his oldest son by falsely accusing him of hiring his would-be killers.  The accusations and the civil case — and even a daughter’s molestation allegation — are overshadowing the career of a man once dubbed “the Johnny Carson of the training circuit.”

Prof. Donovan claimed that “[h]e was shot by two masked men with Russian accents, and saved only because two of the bullets bounced off his belt buckle.”

Some additional details from Former MIT professor headed to trial in allegedly staged shooting, CNN.com, Aug. 1, 2007, include:

Donovan’s children were beneficiaries of just one trust that is worth far less than the amount claimed by their father, according to a spokeswoman for four of the five children. The two sides have a mediated settlement, but the case ended up back in court after a judge found that the elder Donovan did not comply with the terms of the agreement, according to court documents.

In 2002, one of Donovan’s daughters told her siblings that Donovan had sexually abused her when she was a child. Donovan vehemently denies the allegation, and said through his attorneys that his children are using it to gain leverage in the dispute.

People who know Donovan say he is a complex man who inspires both fierce loyalty and animosity.