Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Day by day Beast/Flickr Commons/Pixabay
Two grandchildren of legendary Italian-American media mogul and New York Metropolis powerbroker Generoso Pope Sr.—the late father of Nationwide Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr.—are suing their very own brother over alleged corruption and “rampant self-dealing” they declare “would have outraged” the household patriarch.
In a 35-page civil grievance filed Friday in New York State Supreme Courtroom, Marie-Thérèse and Ted Pope accuse David Pope, the well-connected president and CEO of the Generoso Pope Basis, of “looting” the nonprofit for private acquire as he iced the 2 of them out. David, in keeping with the pair, paid himself “far above the worth of his providers,” put his spouse and two sons on the inspiration payroll “for little to no work,” and managed to blow by not less than $28 million of the inspiration’s cash in somewhat over a decade.
He additionally used basis funds to, amongst different issues, get appearing roles for his son, finance his youngsters’ soccer groups and cheerleading squads, and get all three youngsters into school, the lawsuit states.
The broader Pope household, within the phrases of Marie-Thérèse and Ted’s cousin Paul David Pope, is a “made-for-television” saga of a “rich and high-profile dynasty torn aside by cash and energy.” Paul, who's Generoso Jr.’s son, says his father was written out of Generoso’s Sr.’s will, then clawed his strategy to riches with the Enquirer. When Generoso Jr. died in 1988, he left his personal directions to promote the tabloid relatively than give it to Paul, who wished to proceed the legacy.
In 2013, Paul sued his mom, Palm Seaside socialite Lois Pope, over the household fortune, culminating in his arrest on stalking expenses.
Generoso Pope Sr.
Wikimedia Commons
Now, Marie-Thérèse and Ted have introduced their very own lawsuit towards David “to vindicate their great-grandfather’s aspirations when he based the Generoso Pope Basis,” their legal professional, Andy Tomback of legislation agency McLaughlin & Stern, informed The Day by day Beast on Friday. “It's a tragedy that a direct descendant of a person who funded the Basis so generously has wrongfully taken nearly all of its belongings—nicely in extra of $30 million—and disadvantaged the neighborhood of its assets.”
David, 54, “has destroyed the inspiration and its capability to realize my great-grandfather’s imaginative and prescient,” Marie-Thérèse informed The Day by day Beast.
“He has grossly mismanaged and looted the inspiration’s funds for his personal profit and self-aggrandizement,” she stated. “He has taken tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm doing all in my energy to cease him from persevering with this criminality.”
A separate lawsuit, which Marie-Thérèse and Ted filed final yr, alleges David pilfered hundreds of thousands from his grandparents’ belief.
Generoso Sr., father of Enquirer boss and longtime Mafia affiliate Generoso Jr.—Marie-Thérèse, Ted, and David’s uncle—arrived in New York Metropolis in 1906 with $2.50 in his pocket. After turning into a millionaire within the sand and gravel enterprise, Pope purchased Il Progresso Italo-Americano, an Italian-language every day, and AM radio station WHOM. A one-time Mussolini supporter who later turned towards the Fascist dictator, Pope based New York’s Columbus Day parade and helped flip the second Monday in October right into a nationwide vacation.
Generoso Pope Jr. began the notorious Nationwide Enquirer tabloid newspaper.
REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
In 1947, he established the Generoso Pope Basis, a charitable group that has, through the years, supported “well-regarded medical, instructional, and cultural establishments,” in keeping with the lawsuit, which lists such grantees as New York College Medical Heart, Blythedale Kids’s Hospital, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork, the Guggenheim Museum, and Free Arts NYC. Pope served as the inspiration’s president till his loss of life in 1950, after which his spouse Catherine assumed management. When she died in 1998, their son Anthony took over till his loss of life in 2005. Anthony’s spouse Edith then grew to become the inspiration’s president, however her tenure was “brief lived,” the go well with states.
David quickly satisfied Edith, his grandmother, to step apart and identify him president and CEO of the inspiration, the submitting says.
“Sadly, the self-serving course he set for the Basis would have outraged Generoso,” it says. “In 2007, he pushed Plaintiff Ted Pope out of the Basis. [David] adopted this motion by marginalizing Plaintiff Marie Thérèse Pope and their very personal mom (who additionally served as an officer and director), and ultimately additionally improperly eliminated Plaintiff Marie Thérèse Pope as an officer and director of the Basis in 2010.”
Along with allegedly lining his personal pockets with the inspiration’s cash, the 2 say their brother has lied to state and federal tax authorities and is excluding them from annual basis conferences, in keeping with the lawsuit.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli pictured presenting a proclamation to David Anthony Pope (left) in 2019.
NYS Comptroller
After David grew to become president, the go well with says he started phasing out grants to hospitals and museums and as an alternative began steering them to “organizations by which [he], his rapid members of the family, and his shut pals had a big monetary or different curiosity.”
One instance included within the submitting notes that David and his household have lived for a few years within the Westchester County village of Tuckahoe, New York. Between 2009 and 2018, Pope gave practically $800,000 in basis funds to the Tuckahoe public faculty system, the place his three youngsters attended. He additionally gave greater than $900,000 to the Tuckahoe Tigers Youth Soccer and Cheerleading squads, which the lawsuit says had the Pope youngsters on their rosters, whereas concurrently serving because the president of a tax-exempt group known as Tuckahoe Tigers Youth Soccer and Cheerleading Inc.
Pope additionally gave greater than $68,000 to the Lighthouse Youth Theater the place considered one of his youngsters, AJ, “obtained varied appearing roles, together with main ones,” the lawsuit states.
David additionally gave greater than $1 million of the inspiration’s cash to Fairfield College between 2014 and 2020, “the time that the Pope Kids utilized to the school and attended it,” the go well with continues, arguing that such expenditures would make Generoso Pope “cringe.”
Wage can be one other hot-button subject for the Popes.
Throughout Anthony Pope’s years as president, he paid himself an annual wage of $60,000, in keeping with the lawsuit. In 2005, when David got here in, he instantly jacked up his personal wage to $98,000, it alleges. In 2006, David took a wage of $133,335, including an increasing number of annually till reaching a excessive water mark in 2016 of $224,750—practically 4 instances what Anthony was incomes.
The next yr, the inspiration minimize David’s wage to $198,193 “after studying that the Basis, [David], and/or others linked with the Basis had been below legal investigation,” the lawsuit says. By 2019, the newest yr for which the inspiration’s tax returns are publicly out there, David’s pay had been decreased to simply $58,833, because of the legal investigation. Nonetheless, in all, he had been paid $2.36 million for work that largely benefited nobody apart from himself, in keeping with Marie Thérèse and Ted.
“Even so, [David] did nothing to justify this wage, this wage was extreme, and the wage was far above the worth of providers [he] supplied,” the lawsuit states, noting that “it's debatable whether or not any of the compensation paid to him by the Basis was justified.”
Tomback on Friday informed The Day by day Beast he was not at liberty to offer additional particulars in regards to the supposed legal investigation.
Elsewhere of their go well with, the siblings rake David over the coals for transgression after transgression. There was the Westchester Italian Cultural Heart (WICC), which was created by the Generoso Pope Basis within the early aughts.
Anthony Pope supposed to finance the WICC for “a restricted time” till it grew to become self-sufficient however, below David’s tutelage, the middle acquired $6.5 million over 10 years, whereas David allegedly paid himself as a lot as $225,000 a yr because the WICC’s titular director, the go well with alleges.
David additionally paid salaries from the inspiration to his spouse and two sons, totaling lots of of hundreds of dollars, “for little to no work,” in keeping with the lawsuit.
It was by David’s “willful and reckless misconduct and negligence” that the inspiration’s belongings dwindled from $32 million in 2006 to $4 million in 2019, the lawsuit continues, stating that the full is “seemingly even much less at this time.” A lot of this may be attributed to David’s alleged self-dealing, the go well with states, nonetheless David additionally spent greater than the inspiration took in by a median of $1.8 million yearly. Thus, most income got here from promoting off belongings, in keeping with the go well with.
David had each alternative to develop a profession in his personal proper, however by no means did, a supply near the state of affairs informed The Day by day Beast. What has occurred to the inspiration his great-grandfather constructed from scratch is nothing wanting a “tragedy,” the supply stated.
Marie-Thérèse and Ted at the moment are asking a choose to take away David from the inspiration, and to bar him from ever working for it once more. In an try and rebuild the inspiration, the 2 are additionally asking to be reappointed to their former roles.
David Pope didn't reply to a number of requests for remark.