Mysterious Donations From a Widow with Dementia

Susan Strong Davis is an 87-year old woman with dementia who requires around the clock care in her Palos Verdes Estates home. She made her money as a professional ice skater, and also had money from a trust fund that her parents set up for her. When the original trustees died, Davis had James E. Larkin appointed as one of the co-trustees. Larkin is now her financial advisor.

Davis does not make decisions anymore because of her dementia, but Larkin is playing a large role in making some decisions with her money. In her name, Larkin recently borrowed millions to build an extravagant house in Beverly Hills and given $600,000 to a charity run by the controversial Kabbalah Centre – an organization to which she apparently has no ties, and one which the IRS is investigating.

While Davis has no known investment or involvement with the Kabbalah Centre, Larkin’s intense involvement began in the early 2000s. It is not clear whether Davis gave Larkin any instructions about the donations, and it is not clear whether she has made other previous donations to the charities associated with the Kabbalah Centre.

In addition to the Kabbalah Centre donations, Davis has borrowed $2.65 million from the trust to facilitate the sale and construction of a home near the Kabbalah Centre’s headquarters. There is disagreement among Experts and former judges as to whether the real estate deal was trust business that called for a judge’s review. The home is only half finished because of cash flow problems. Larkin has since told the contractor that the owner would not be moving into the home, so the contractor should sell it instead.

Larkin will not provide any comment on these uses of Davis’s money, and it seems to remain unclear whether Davis is behind these uses or Larkin is running the show.

See Harriet Ryan, Widow with Dementia Gave $600,000 to Kabbalah Charity, LA Times, Apr. 9, 2012. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.