Bulgari heirs fight for massive $129 million family trust

It’s not a sparkling legacy for the family behind one of the world’s most enduring jewelry brands.

Two sisters who inherited tens of millions from Italian fashion company Bulgari have been vying for money for years in a battle that “covers most of Wall Street with subpoenas”, according to court documents.

Ilaria Bulgari, has accused her older sister Veronica, 58, of hiding information from her about the massive family trust created for their mother, Anna, and left to them when she died in 2019 – a fund that eventually reached a value of $129 million, legal papers show.

The sisters, along with a third brother, Natalia, 54, have each received a $40 million payout so far, but the fight has dragged on in three different courts, with dozens of lawyers and accountants examining 15 years of financial dealings as Ilaria, who lives in Switzerland, seeks to prove his claims that Manhattan resident Veronica failed to fully distribute the family’s wealth.

“That’s one of the things we’re trying to figure out,” Ilaria’s lawyer David Boies said of what the younger Bulgari sister might owe, calling it a “substantial amount.”

Veronica’s camp has declared Ilaria’s allegations “baseless”, arguing that her endless court war is simply draining estate funds. The only money that was withheld, they said in court documents, was to cover taxes and other costs.

None of Ilaria’s many lawyers objected to the 3,500-page review of the trust’s finances, a source noted.

“Why didn’t they file an objection with the Probate Court? The answer is that there is nothing wrong with the accounting,” said the source, who said Ilaria’s refusal to give up the legal fight angered the sisters’ father, who cut her off. financially.

“She alienated her entire family,” the source added.

The dispute is so ugly that Veronica accused Ilaria’s investor boyfriend Jan Boyer of being involved in the fight – prompting Ilaria and Jan to declare themselves married under Swiss law and claim marital privilege, even though they never actually exchanged their vows.

“We consider ourselves a married couple,” Boyer said in a Manhattan federal court filing, adding that he expected any help he provided to Ilaria to be confidential.

Ultimately, Boyer was deposed in the case earlier this month, Boies said.

In a new lawsuit filed this week in Manhattan, Veronica claims that one of Ilaria’s many lawyers stooped so low as to trick another group of lawyers into handing her estate papers and is refusing to return them.

Veronica Bulgari, who is the executor of her mother’s estate, claims lawyer David Bamdad phoned attorneys representing the estate, telling them he was representing ‘the daughter’ – but without specifying that he had been hired by Ilaria, according to the latest lawsuit.

“The claim is not true,” Bamdad told the Post.

The sisters are descendants of Sotiri Bulgari, whose humble family jewelry business grew into a massive brand that the clan sold in 2011 for $5.2 billion in cash and stock.