The Brooke Astor employees instrumental in getting her son bounced as her caretaker profited from his departure, court records show.
Astor’s butler, a nurse and a nurse’s aide filed affidavits charging Anthony Marshall with “elder abuse” for allegedly skimping on his multi-millionaire mom’s care.
The three were paid $135,000 in a two-month period after JPMorgan Chase took charge of Astor’s $130 million fortune, records show.
Christopher Ely, the butler whom Marshall fired and blames for the “coup” against him, was rehired and paid $19,000 in reimbursements, the filing says. That included $2,800 for salaries he’d paid to the cleaning staff at Astor’s $17 million Briarcliff Manor estate, and $16,000 for “various household expenses” and various household staples.”
Between August and October, Ely also pulled in $18,000 in salary, the filing shows.
A nurse who had risked her job by filing an affidavit criticizing Marshall had her salary doubled, and was paid $61,930.35 between Aug. 1 and Oct. 11, the filing shows.
The nurse’s aide had her salary doubled, and was paid $31,722 in the same time frame, the filing shows.
A spokeswoman for the bank declined comment.
The trio’s affidavits were instrumental in helping Marshall’s son, Philip, convince a judge that his father should be replaced as caretaker for Astor, who turns 105 tomorrow.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice John Stackhouse named Astor’s close friend and fellow philanthropist Annette de la Renta her temporary personal guardian and named JPMorgan Chase her temporary financial guardian.
Both were made her permanent guardians when the case settled in October. Anthony Marshall and his wife agreed to repay Astor $11 million in cash, art and jewelry, but a court evaluator later determined that the “elder abuse” allegations were unfounded.
Anthony’s lawyer, Ken Warner, said the “the payments to people who supported the discredited allegations certainly is a matter of some concern, and has a very unsavory quality to it.”
A source close to the bank said the bank’s experts had determined the nursing staff was underpaid when Marshall was in charge of the finances.