The Price for Doing the Right Thing - Cynthia Garcia’s Efforts of Protecting an Heiress
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published September 14, 2010
Donna McGill
What does a 104 year old heiress, and 78 year old attorney and half a billion dollars have in common? The answer is Cynthia Garcia, who is now being questioned by one of New York City's DA Elder Abuse Unit investigators. Cynthia Garcia and Huguette Clark are an unlikely duo, but when you've lived to be one hundred plus years old, and if you're the heiress to a copper miner's wealth, you need all of the allies you can get who have no ulterior motives for your money.
It all began when Ms Clark began giving gifts to her nurses and other employees that sometimes included homes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in one case, the same employee received at least four properties from Clark. Enter Wally Bock, the attorney who, along with an accountant, has tried desperately to get Clark to alter her will. Charging incredible attorney's fees, Cynthia Garcia know something wasn't quite right. Garcia at one time was employed by Bock's law firm.
In her interviews with the district attorney's office, Garcia told the tales of Clark's generosity. Although the reason isn't exactly clear, someone convinced the elderly woman to sell a $6 million violin and one Renoir painting estimated to be worth nearly $24 million. Unfortunately, her estate is managed by Bock and an accountant who incredibly is a convicted felon! Neither Bock nor the accountant, Irving H. Kamsler have been charged with any criminal wrongdoing in this case, although Kamsler remains on probation for sending pornography via the internet to what he believed was an underage teen, but who was in reality an undercover detective. That could change if Garcia's efforts pay off. She also revealed in one of her many interviews with law enforcement, some of which were conducted over the phone and lasting for hours, that Bock accepted $1.5 million from Clark to build a bomb shelter at his home in Israel. Bock also reportedly allowed Clark to purchase a doll house worth more than $10,000!
While these reports, if true, are more than disgusting, if not for Garcia, we might not have learned of how her former boss speaks of his client. She is ridiculed and laughed at by Bock. ''It was a joke'', Garcia said. ''What they're doing to her is horrible'', says Garcia. She goes on to explain that she received a phone call recently from her former boss asking her to not speak with authorities. ''He sounded patronizing and so desperate to placate me'', Garcia told one reporter. Since then, Bock hired a spokesperson who promptly released a statement, ''We believe Ms Garcia is confused about the facts''. They might believe this, but the district attorney's office believes otherwise. What began as ''Cynthia Garcia paralegal'' has come full circle for this brave woman who is now more of ''Cynthia Garcia protector''.
For now, Clark's 42 room apartment on New York's Fifth Avenue remains unoccupied, as do her many mansions scattered across the U.S. Her estate pays millions of dollars in taxes while Clark resides at a New York hospital. Garcia continues to live her life, confident in that she's done the right thing and for the right reasons. Unfortunately, this battle will likely continue for months and possibly years.
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