Leonard Cohen's children accuse former manager Rober Kory of forging trust documents, want him out
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Lorca Cohen and Adam Cohen, the children of late musician Leonard Cohen, have accused his former manager Rober Kory, and his legal representatives, of forgery. They have also requested Kory's removal from the trust and return of money earned from his activity while working in the position, and turn over the assets acquired from the estate.
The new motion is a follow-up to a legal battle that was filed in December 2022. The earlier case claimed that Kory has kept the siblings uninformed on the 'Hallelujah' singer's finances and allegedly took control of it by fraud, reported The New York Post.
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What are the claims in the new motion?
In the earlier motion filed in December, Lorca and Adam's attorney Adam Streisand said, “Leonard Cohen’s lawyers and manager forged his trust so they could fleece the estate of millions of dollars and steal the Hall of Famer’s legacy from his own children," to the New York Post. It was earlier reported that Reeve Chudd, who is Kory's former attorney, admitted to have removed a page from Cohen’s signed trust after the singer’s death in 2016 and replacing it with one stating that Kory is the primary trustee — a felony. Later, the former manager blamed Chudd for the forgery, and stated he “modified a document unbeknownst to anybody." However, the new motion filed by the siblings states that Kory’s claims “strain credulity.”
The motion also emphasize on stating that Kory is not a trustee and has no right to act in that capacity, and to have Lorca and Adam Cohen take over the trust. It also emphasize on the former manager pay back the money he has earned in the position of a trustee. This earning also includes the $58 million acquired after Hipgnosis Songs acquired the rights to 278 songs and derivatives written by Cohen. The lawsuit also suggested the musician was “dying and heavily medicated” when he signed a July 2016 agreement, where it indicated Kory can be given a 15% commission on such a scale in this deal. However, Kory claimed that he has not read through the trust documents before signing the same.
'It was a horrible mistake'
Since the Cohens contend that the document is forged, "there is no valid instrument by Leonard designating Kory to serve in that capacity. Since Leonard’s death in 2016, Kory has been holding himself out as trustee and exercising control over the Trust and its assets solely on the basis of forgery and fraud,” according to the latest motion.
An exchange between Chudd and Cohens’ attorney Adam Streisand is included in the motion, Variety reports.
In the deposition, Chudd admits to removing a page from Cohen’s signed trust and replacing it with one that indicated Kory is the primary trustee of Cohen’s trust. At one point, Chudd is asked: “And if you take a look at the next page, PET 1-28, you see your notarization of Leonard Cohen’s signatures, right?” to which he replies, “Yes,”.
“You did not notarize Leonard Cohen’s signatures to this version of the restatement of the Leonard Cohen family trust, right?” Chudd is then asked.
“Yes. It was a horrible mistake on my part to create this document,” he responds.
Admitting that he physically created the document after Cohen died in 2016 at 82 years old, he says, "I substituted pages in the original document."
Alterations made in Cohen’s Restatement of the Trust
The lawsuit points out several alterations to Cohen’s Restatement of the Trust. In 2005, It initially named his two children and his ex-girlfriend, Anjani Thomas, as successors, but later Kory was named as sole first successor trustee and his children as second successor trustees. In 2016, the musician revoked the statement and named Adam, Lorca and Thomas as trustees. A month before the musician's death, Cohen allegedly wrote to Kory “lamenting that he had given Kory far too much control over his affairs.”