In the span of a decade, Matthew Forman has emerged as the public face of the Himan Brown Charitable Trust, a charity with a $100 million fortune. Tracy in that medium’s golden age”.
As a trustee and most recently as a trust consultant, Mr. Forman, 41, earns as much as $250,000 a year and has helped distribute millions of dollars to good causes. He won a service award and spoke on an expert panel.
“It was great to work with him,” said Isabelle Pike, senior vice president of development at Branches, an organization that helps poor families. “He’s supported a great show here in South Florida.”
But the foundation, which is run by Mr. Brown’s granddaughter, said in court documents that Mr. Forman had no experience in the field when he was hired as the charity’s sole trustee. challenged the eligibility of personal trainer.
This challenge is the latest chapter in a long-running lawsuit by the Foundation. radio drama networkto Richard L. Kay, the sole trustee who assisted in the design of the trust as Mr. Brown’s attorney.
Mr Kay claims Mr Brown created the trust to protect his money from his estranged family. But the lawsuit alleges that Kay tricked Brown, who was 94, into transferring his estate to a charitable trust in 2004. Mr. Brown died six years later.
Under the new estate plan, the lawsuit alleges that most of the property that had been designated to go to Radio Drama Network was instead diverted to the new Himan Brown Charitable Trust.
Under Kay, the trust paid Forman $1.5 million and donated millions more to Kay-related causes, including his alma mater Cornell University and Michigan Law School, according to the complaint. His grandson’s Montessori school. And it’s his 92nd Street Y in New York, where he’s on the board. Instead, the money should have gone to a separate radio foundation that Mr. Brown set up to foster respect for the spoken word, according to the complaint.
Granddaughter Melina Brown said in an interview, “I want people to know who he was and what kind of work he did. But it’s not happening.”
Mr. Forman declined an interview, but his attorney defended his credentials, describing him as a former sales professional who had high marks in college and briefly attended law school at the University of Miami. In 2014, the Miami-Dade County Public School System received the Community Partners Recognition Award for supporting the trust given to children in poor neighborhoods of Miami. Several other grant recipients in Florida praised him and his charity’s work.
“He is a humble, bright, hardworking, caring person and one of the most professional people I have worked with in philanthropy,” said an executive at the Key Biscayne Community Foundation, which received a grant from the Trust. Director Melissa White said. .
The judge presiding over the lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan agency court in 2015, said the trust’s administration and its expenditures fell outside the scope of the lawsuit, which focused on allegations that Mr. Kay tricked Mr. Brown into setting up the trust. ruled that it is. Raise it.
But Drama Network disputed the ruling, arguing that Kay’s spending choices, including hiring Forman, showed his personal interests at the time the trust was created in 2004. there is Mr. Brown’s death.
Brown founded another foundation, The Radio Network, in 1984, and in a 1999 interview said it was part of an effort to revive the “art of listening” lost in an era of diminished attention and media competition. said. .
The communal experience of radio, where families gathered in living rooms to broadcast, had its heyday from the 1930s to the 1950s, before the advent of television. During that time, Mr. Brown directed and produced shows such as “The Adventures of the Thin Man,” “Flash Gordon,” “Grand Central Station,” and “Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” working with actors such as Orson Welles and Helen Hayes. did. In 1990 he introduced Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.
A few years before his death, Mr. Brown was sued by his son, Barry, but lost. He said, among other things, that his father abused him as a child, although his father denied the charges. Barry Brown filed suit again, challenging his father’s will, alleging that Mr. Kay manipulated his father into diverting funds to a new charitable trust after his father died.
But in 2015, attorney-at-law Judge Nora S. Anderson dismissed Brown’s claim, citing testimony that said Mr. Brown “remained sharp-minded and steadfast in his old age.” Did.
Drama Network filed a lawsuit later that year. Kay’s attorneys argued that the fraud allegations had already been ruled. Judge Anderson, however, ruled that the new case can proceed.
In the current lawsuit, Mr. Kay’s attorneys accuse Mr. Brown of trying to claim a larger share of the property in order to extract more administrative costs. said that Mr. Brown explicitly created the new trust to keep most of his money away from Barry’s two children, including Barry Brown and Melina.
“I can’t say anything more dramatic about the poison Himan Brown has shown to his son. It also extended to his granddaughter,” Kay said.
Melina Brown denies seeking higher pay or that the strife between her grandfather and father has affected her. loved her and wanted her to further his mission of increasing interest in the spoken word. left her $3 million and his home in Connecticut.
Currently, the Radio Foundation has approximately $20 million in assets. For the year ending June 2021, we have provided $307,500 in grants, including to organizations supporting Hispanic theater and storytelling in public schools. Lawsuits against the trust have been costly, with more than $2 million spent in legal fees over the last two years, according to tax records.
A charitable trust managed by Mr. Kay holds approximately $107 million in assets. He distributed nearly $4.5 million in grants in the fiscal year ending March 2021, according to tax returns.
Mr. Kay receives an annual fee as trustee, which was $300,000 last year. He shares this with his law firm, Pryor Cashman.
Mr. Kay’s attorneys say Mr. Brown’s name is fully associated with his gift of trust. 60+ programs Named after him on 92nd Street Y in New York. They said that when Mr. Brown was alive, his radio foundation had financially supported many different causes, only a few of which involved the spoken word. He also points out that he has supported multiple lecture activities, including appearances by Dick Cavett and Bill Clinton. They say Brown sees Kay as a friend and trusts Kay’s judgment completely when subsidizing. They cite a personal message from Mr. Brown to Mr. Kay, explaining the close relationship between the two.
Foreman said in a deposition last month that he worked as a personal trainer for Kay and his family in New York before moving to Florida. When Kay hired him for the trust in 2011, he was working in sales, he said. In court documents earlier this year, he said he also served as a co-trustee of the trust at one point.
New York State does not set specific professional qualifications for charitable employees or consultants. But experts say charities, especially those with large sums of money, understand philanthropy, have expertise in specific areas, and have experience in fundraising and giving grants. We often try to hire individuals.
Attorneys for Carter Ledyard & Milburn, who represent Drama Network, were barred from asking detailed questions about Mr. Forman’s philanthropic activities during a deposition last month.Trust.
However, in limited questioning, Forman said he worked as an employee of the trust until late 2017 or early 2018. Since that time, Mr. Forman has been enrolled in Miami Philanthropic Consulting, Inc., according to tax records, and he serves as an advisor to the trust. According to tax records, he was paid $250,000 by the trust in his one year period ending March 2021.
In a deposition, Forman said he had not spoken to Kay for years, but said he could not give an exact date.
He was also asked what he knew about the man of the heritage he advertised. He said he knew that
“He produced a radio show,” Forman said. “I believe in ‘The Thin Man.’ Maybe ‘Dick Tracy.'”