Did the accountant murder Patricia Cornwell's nest egg?
Filed under: People
It's a mystery Kay Scarpetta, the fictional medical examiner and heroine of the hugely successful mystery novels written by Patricia Cornwell, would love to tackle. However, in a plot twist that Cornwell wouldn't dare to conjure up, this mystery is real. Gone missing is the $40 million personal fortune of Cornwell and her spouse, Staci Gruber, a Harvard neuroscientist.
While Scarpetta may pursue every minute clue in an effort to find the culprit, the brainy duo of Cornwell and Gruber seem to be clueless when it comes to keeping track of their finances.
In a complaint filed in the Federal Court in Boston on October 13, the two claim that they are victims of their New York-based accounting and financial advisory firm, Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP, which they hired to provide "traditional and non-traditional advisory services." Among those "non-traditional" services, the two claim the firm said it "would do everything for its clients including buying and delivering their toilet paper." At least that would have been value added.
According to the complaint, the financial management firm controlled every aspect of the financial lives of its clients and provided them with no information about their assets, liabilities, expenses or net worth. In the four and a half years in which Anchin ran the couple's finances, they allegedly lost approximately $40 million, while paying themselves almost $1 million "all without providing bills, or billing detail or back-up."
Where did the money go?
That's the remarkable part of this case. The complaint does not specify a single investment that was made by Anchin, Block & Anchin. There are some juicy tidbits about unauthorized expenses laid out in the lawsuit like a $5,000 bat mitvah gift to the daughter of a principal of Anchin "whom Ms. Cornwell has never met" and a "gift" of $11,000 to a business associate "who denies ever receiving the funds." Anchin did not return calls seeking comment by press time.
This is not Cornwell's first foray into the world of litigation. In 2000, she successfully sued an author who falsely claimed her book, The Last Precinct, copied from his obscure publication. He accused her of being "a nasty, dirty and ruthless book-burning Nazi." The Federal Court in Virginia found for Cornwell and granted her a preliminary injunction.
In this latest case, Scarpetta has her work cut out for her. Two of the brightest women in the country have no idea whether their money was invested in stocks, bonds or gold or never invested at all.
Now that is a real mystery.
Dan Solin is the author of the newly published book, The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee Books 2009). His prior books include the New York Times bestsellers, The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read and The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read. See SmartestInvestmentBook.com. Read more about Dan Solin.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
10-22-2009 @ 10:09AM
Russ said...
ummm, the phrase, "you get what you deserve" comes to mind...how could anyone be such a complete bungling idiot about their livliehood and fortune?
Reply
10-22-2009 @ 6:31PM
Rose Houser said...
I agree with Russ, how stupid can u be? Never ever allow any one person or group total control of your finances. It's imperative that u learn how to read a p/l statement and also know basic accounting so that you can read a financial statement. $4mil. lesson.
10-22-2009 @ 11:41PM
Kevin said...
Russ, it is simply how they could be bungling idiots with no financial savvy. Although I am not sure about the woman, but almost sure, the man is a highly educated person. Perhaps even PhD, like obama. And obama surely doesn't have any finacial ability, except how to spend and WASTE money!
10-23-2009 @ 5:43AM
CelluliteQueen said...
$40 MILLION? Hell, I'm going to stop working on my web site and start writing novels! heehee :)
10-22-2009 @ 10:40AM
jeff said...
Don't put all your eggs in one basket comes to mind. Harvard neuroscientist, Guess all book smarts.
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10-22-2009 @ 10:42AM
jeff said...
40 mill, eha, sign it over chicken feed to us.
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10-22-2009 @ 10:51AM
Jake said...
Q Public needs to learn that there are lots of people willing to relieve you of your assets so manage it yourself, it's not hard.
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10-22-2009 @ 10:59AM
maddawg said...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....
i can't stop laughing....
how retarded do you have to be to be so blind and of such imbecile dimensions that you let a finance advisor or company handle your assets for 4.5 years before you notice your money is not what or where you thought it was???!!!???
i think these ladies DESERVE to lose every single penny since they clearly gave ZERO time to managing or verifying their assets even though they had OTHER people that were basically strangers, handling their finances.
it's addition, subtraction, division and multiplication......IT'S FINANCES....NOT BRAIN SURGERY!!!
any imbecile with half a brain and a calculator can do that.
and HOW in the world does this writer/article have the audacity to claim these women are "Two of the brightest women in the country..."
i mean HOW stupid do you have to be to be called "Two of the brightest women in the country"???
well i guess you have to be stupid enough to LOSE 40 MILLION!!!
again, they clearly deserve to lose it all since they have no brains to take care of it all and it is only money....
i can't imagine how funked up the rest of their lives are with the parts of life that are actually hard to manage!!!
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10-22-2009 @ 8:30PM
Roseann said...
I agree!!!! I love her books and read them all the time, but in reality is she and her husband living in the world of fiction that they don't have 'hands on' with their 'financial advisors. Duh, I have monthly reports and know what's happening in my small world of investments, and I'm a NOVICE....well, it just goes to show that rich people do dumb things, agree?
10-22-2009 @ 11:54PM
cannotbelievethis said...
It's TWO WOMEN... that's pretty funked up... and to not ask for a bill, a statement, an e-mail... a YTD accounting IN FOUR YEARS... yeah they're really funked up...
10-22-2009 @ 11:03AM
Andy said...
Dumb ... and dumber.
Reply
10-23-2009 @ 1:30AM
David said...
They can't be any dumber than the people that think free credit
reports are free.
10-22-2009 @ 11:22AM
CJ said...
One would think that two brilliant persons would have been smart enough to manage their own investments and demand statements and confirmations of trades.
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10-22-2009 @ 11:25AM
bill said...
Huh? What? Who? Who are these people?
Reply
10-22-2009 @ 9:10PM
odasan@aol.com said...
Jeez---can you read? Neer heard of Patricia Cornwell?
10-22-2009 @ 11:39AM
Ron said...
They have about as much "hot air" as that balloon stunt last week...........I have no pity for them whatsoever!
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10-22-2009 @ 12:27PM
Andy said...
Really. I think we have to stop calling them "brilliant." On the face of it.
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10-22-2009 @ 12:39PM
John said...
I would imagine that this accounting firm will have a few clients making a few inquiries. These women are priceless!!! I guess they knew they had money as long as they had checks in their checkbook. Ha! Ha! Ha! At least Bernie Madoff's clients (i.e. victims) got some kind of paper statements.......
Reply
10-23-2009 @ 1:40AM
David said...
I think Bernie Madoff should be caned on a regular basis. Maybe
one good whack every morning
10-22-2009 @ 1:13PM
Jared said...
How stupid can you get? I mean seriously one if you've got a small fortune you spread it out. I think you should Captian Jack Sparro with the Statement of "no body move me brain fell out"
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