Former Procter and Gamble chairman EdwardHarness’s three children are fighting over a multi- million dollar trust left totheir mother who died in 2009. The trust was created in 1995 and named FifthThird as trustee. The trust made it clear that the trust distributions wereonly to benefit Mary Harness. The suit alleges the bank lent Harness’s son $1.3million using the trust as collateral. Additionally, when the loan defaultedthe bank took $800,000 from the trust to repay the debt. After the suit wasfiled in 2010 Fifth Third was replaced as trustee. Fifth Third denies theallegations and claims the statue of limitations has run. Two of the childrenare alleging that the bank misappropriated $2.1 million dollars from the trust andturned it over to their brother. The trial is set in Hamilton County ProbateCourt. The attorney for Mary Harness, Edward’s wife, also alleges the bankbreached their fiduciary duty as the trustee. This legal battle has also raisedtax consequences. The IRS has begun auditing the trust returns.
See Kimball Perry, Fifth Third in Court on P&G Trust Case, Cincinnati News, Jun. 25, 2013.
