The dirt-poor Nepalese relatives of late Manhattan fashion legend Shail Upadhya are scraping together their meager belongings — even selling off land — to finance a battle against an evil European baroness who swooped in and made off with the designer’s $5 million fortune, according to their lawsuit.
The wild tale stars the late Upadhya, who had retired from a career as a disarmament expert at the United Nations but had a second-coming as a bizarrely colorful fashion designer.
Upadhya was at the funeral of his longtime girlfriend Karen Bass in 2012 when the Baroness von Langendorff showed up and ingratiated herself to the grieving man, the lawsuit says.
Bass, a real-estate agent who died from cancer, owned properties in the Hamptons, Manhattan and Miami. She left everything to her boyfriend of 30 years, saying in her will, “My dearest Shail . . . I have always loved you, and I will watch over you always.”
After her death, the broken-hearted Upadhya failed rapidly, requiring 24-hour care, and fell under the spell of the scheming baroness, his half-siblings Ranjan, Prem and Mukta Upadhya allege in their Manhattan Surrogate’s Court case.
Bass’ best friend, who’d never met von Langendorff before Bass’ funeral, smelled a rat and alerted his struggling family in Nepal that the “scary” baroness coerced the grief-stricken man to write a will signing over Bass’ properties to her.
“He was so ill, he was like putty in her hands,” Bass’ pal, Joy Marks told The Post. “I knew his intentions were for the estate to go to the family.”
Upadhya died in January 2013 at the age of 79.
His siblings claim the baroness used “force, flattery, threats” to convince their sickly brother to disinherit them.
The baroness, who also goes by Gabriele Langer and lives in The Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue, is the wife of the late Austrian perfume mogul Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff.
“They’re struggling and she’s living at The Pierre. How do you do that to someone,” Marks asked.
The baroness’ attorney declined to comment on her behalf.
via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1nV7IEN
0 意見:
張貼留言