Financial Accounting Reveals Spending Habits of Huguette Clark

Court documents filed in relation to the legal battles surrounding Huguette Clark’s $400 million fortune depict how the reclusive heiress, her attorney, and her accountant spent her wealth. Clark’s will, which left nothing to Clark’s family, left about $34 million to Clark’s nurse and over $17 million to her attorney and accountant.

The attorney and accountant were attorneys-in-fact for the last fifteen years under Clark’s legal power of attorney, and the court ordered them to account for all transactions they made during those fifteen years. The court made the following details of the financial accounting public:

• Between 1997 and 2009, Clark’s personal checkbook received deposits equaling $43,325,000.
• A renowned doll and toy shop in Paris received $2.5 million from 1997 to 2006.
• Theriault’s doll auction received $729,000 from 1997 to 2009.
• Clark (who was raised Roman Catholic) contributed $1.85 million to Jewish settlements in West Bank (the same settlement where the daughter of Clark’s attorney lived).
• Either Wallace Bock (Clark’s attorney) or Irving Kamsler (Clark’s accountant) wrote checks on Clark’s account from 2000 to 2002 totaling $1.65 million to the Central Fund of Israel.
• Bock wrote a check for $200,000 in September 2003 to American Friends of New Communities in Israel.
• Kamsler received a stipend for his accounting services at a rate of $90,000 a year.
• Bock’s law firm received about $250,000 a year.
• Both Kamsler and Bock will inherit $500,000 if Clark’s will is upheld and an additional $8 million each if they are allowed to serve as executors.
• On November 19, 2009, Bock or Kamsler wrote checks totaling $440,00 from Clark’s personal account to Clark’s internist ($50,000), Clark’s nurse, Hadassah Peri ($60,000), the Peri’s husband ($60,000), Kamsler ($60,000), Clark’s personal assistant ($60,000), Clark’s other nurse ($30,000), Clark’s goddaughter ($50,000), and a third nurse ($10,000). Three weeks later Bock received a check for $60,000.
• Clark’s main private nurse, Peri, received $131,040 a year. She also received a lump sum of $5 million in 2009. If Clark’s will is upheld, Peri will inherit $34 million and Clark’s doll collection.

For a description of all of Clark’s spending, as detailed in the financial accounting, see Bill Dedman, The 1 Percent of the 1 Percent: how Huguette Clark’s Millions Were Spent, MSNCB, Nov. 19, 2011.