Perelmans at War

Most families squabble, but few do it quite like Philadelphia’s Perelmans. In a legal clash that includes allegations of stealing and duplicity, son Jeffrey is pitted against his tycoon father Raymond and his starlet-marrying, headline-grabbing brother Ron. One thing’s for sure: Thanksgiving at the Perelman house will never be the same

But Alison currently finds herself the center of the fight between her father, who set up the trust that now bears her name when she was seven years old, and her grandfather, who, Jeffrey alleges, in recent years has told friends — including personal injury lawyer Marvin Lundy and Gary Crooks, the initial recipient of the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman professorship in internal medicine at Penn — that Jeffrey used that trust to steal from his own daughter. “Raymond Perelman has now, in the twilight of his life, elected to engage in a vicious course of conduct directed at one son, with the aid and instigation of the other, that is unspeakable, incredibly embarrassing to both the family and a very prominent and distinguished member of the Philadelphia legal community, and utterly devoid of a factual basis or any connection to reality,” Jeffrey states in his federal lawsuit against his father, which was filed in October and then amended in November to include defamation claims against both Raymond and Ron.

Raymond’s specific allegations of fraud — detailing his charge that Jeffrey altered the agreed to terms of the set up of the trust so that he and Marsha would control the income generated by it, something he says he strictly forbade as part of the deal to sell Jeffrey his assets — are believed to be spelled out in his lawsuit in the Pennsylvania state courts. On October 21st, that filing was sealed by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Albert W. Sheppard, the jurist who famously ordered the Eagles to pay the city $8 million in back skybox revenue last June. The sealing motion was granted two days after Arlin Adams wrote to the federal court (and presumably the state court as well) expressing concern that the litigation would embarrass the family and expose its “internal relationships and disagreements, and personality conflicts. The litigation may also portray the family in a negative and unflattering light, which risks undermining the good works that the family has done for the citizens of the region.”