Sami Shamoon's will: How $100M were distributed
Billionaire's last will and testament made public following legal dispute over inheritance
Two and a half years after the passing away of businessman Sami Shamoon, his will has been made public: his widow Angela Joy Shamoon and daughter Alexandra submitted a copy of the will to the Petah Tikva District Court as part of a claim against the estate which was filed by the managers of a Netanya orphanage who claim Shamoon pledged to donate $7 million for the purpose of building a new orphanage.
The widow and daughter are represented by Yigal Arnon & Co. and the orphanage is represented by Dr. Jacob Weinroth & Co. The mother and daughter claim that the will, drawn on December 2007, a year and a half before Shamoon passed away, proves that Shamoon merely examined making the substantial donation toward the construction of an orphanage but never actually pledged to do so otherwise it would have been explicitly stated in the will.
A billion dollar estate
Shamoon's estate is roughly estimated at $1 billion and includes the controlling stake of produce processing company Yakhin Hakal; shares in the Cash & Carry project; a 25% stake of Gaon Holdings (the founder of which was the late Benny Gaon who was Shamoon's close friend); a 20% stake in Middle East Pipe company and well as numerous housing unites and additional assets around the glob. Shamoon named retired justice Gal Gottsegen as executor of his estate. Representing the estate in the orphanage claim is attorney Yossi Benkel.
Shamoon left some $100 million in cash to relatives, friends and acquaintances; his wife and daughter inherited equal shares of the rest of his assets. Additionally, Shamoon left the two $20 million each from the cash inheritance; however, the daughter will receive the inheritance in ten years at the age of 35. Furthermore, Shamoon left his wife a London flat and his daughter a London office building. The will stipulates that upon transferring the funds to the beneficiaries, his wife and daughter are to equally divide the remainder of his assets between them, constituting the lion's portion of the estate.
Among Shamoon's seven siblings, five of them were alive when the will was drawn but most were left modest sums of money as compared to the wealth left to their children. The largest sum was left to the children of his late brother Fried Shamoon who each received $5 million; his widow received $3 million. Each of the children of his late sister, Bertha Debby, inherited $3 million.
Shamoon left his brother Jack Shamoon, who resides in South Africa, $2 million; brother Josef Shamoon, who lives in Spain, inherited $2.5 million and the same amount was left to his son and his mother Donna inherited $3 million; Shamoon's sister Daisy, who resides in New York, inherited $1 million and here daughter inherited $2 million.
Two of Shamoon's brothers were not named as beneficiaries; however, their children and spouses will enjoy the estate as well – Shamoon's brother-in-law, Yehuda Hanukkah, husband of Shamoon's sister Clarine Hanukkah, received $3 million; the couple's two daughters received $2 million each and the husband of one of the daughters received a similar sum. The second brother left out of the will is David, although Shamoon left his wife $200,000 and each of their children received a half a million dollars.
Aside from his immediate relatives, Shamoon left money to a large number of other beneficiaries as well, starting from several thousands of dollars. The largest sum left to a non-relative was $1 million left to the president of the Sami Shamoon College, Professor Yehuda Hadad. The head of Shamoon's London office received a half a million dollars and the same sum was left to his daughter.
Shamoon also left sums ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 to several friends and acquaintances as well, except in the case of a close friend's children each of whom received $250,000. The two physicians who treated him while he was hospitalized at the Wolfson Medical Center received $10,000 and $20,000; his personal secretaries received similar sums. Ten Yakhin Hakal employees were left between $10,000 and $40,000 each and his personal chauffer received $10,000. Similar sums were left to his two housekeepers.
Shamoon also left longstanding friend, attorney Dov Weissglass $15,000; CPA Itzhak Forer received $10,000 and Benny Gaon, Shamoon's business partner who was still alive at the time the will was written, was to receive $20,000. Finally, Shamoon even left several of his neighbors in the Sea & Sun condominium, $30,000 each.
A pedantic and meticulous personality
At the same time of the will was being publicized, Shamoon's widow filed a deposition to the court in which she relays her version of the events surrounding the allegedly promised donation for the orphanage. Angela Joy argued that the claim was a "futile attempt to on part of the claimants to bear pressure on the estate to pledge a $7 million donation to the orphanage which is not mentioned in the will and which he clearly and explicitly refrained from donating while still alive".
She claims that this manner of conducting affairs was typical of Sami Shamoon's "pedantic and meticulous personality" but was a sin qua non in light of the multitude of requests for donations he faced. Attorney Weinroth representing the organizations which run the orphanages replied: "The departed pledged a donation for the purpose of constructing an orphanage, which was explicitly anchored in documents written prior to his death. Legally speaking, this obligation takes precedence over the heirs, and need not have been mentioned in the will.
"The claims that the 'obligation has not come to fruition' cannot be reconciled with the facts. The departed reiterated both to various people and in a speech he made at an inauguration ceremony as well as on numerous occasions in which he states that the establishment of an orphanage is the fulfillment of a childhood dream and he is looking forward to its construction while he is still alive. The orphanage regrets that it has to resort to legal action to ensure that the will and commitment undertaken on part of the departed are executed".
Click here to read this report in Hebrew
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