Mystery heiress dies
Eccentric copper heiress Huguette Clark died yesterday at age 104 after more than two decades in a Manhattan hospital — leaving the fate of her $500 million fortune up in the air — and her lawyer and accountant facing criminal charges for their handling of her affairs.
Clark made headlines in the early 20th century as the daughter of US Sen. William Clark — then America’s second-richest man — but the childless, reclusive woman, who divorced in 1930 after a brief marriage, was long forgotten.
She spent her days collecting expensive dolls under round-the-clock nursing care at Beth Israel Medical Center, where she had voluntarily admitted herself.
She left empty a 42-room Fifth Avenue apartment, a $100 million California home and a 55-acre New Canaan, Conn., estate.
Last year, the Manhattan DA’s Office opened a still-pending criminal probe into the handling of her vast fortune by her lawyer, Wallace Bock, and her registered-sex-offender accountant, Irving Kamsler.
The Post and MSNBC exposed a series of allegedly questionable actions by Bock and Kamsler.
Bock allegedly asked for and received from Clark $1.5 million to fund a security system in a West Bank settlement where the lawyer’s daughter and grandkids live, and Clark also gave one of Bock’s granddaughter’s a dollhouse worth more than $10,000.
Kamsler also continued handling Clark’s money despite being convicted of attempting to send porn over the Internet to a detective posing as an underage girl.
One of Clark’s half-great-grand-nieces, Carla Hall Friedman, said the family had no comment yesterday after Clark died. A lawyer for Kamsler and Bock’s spokesman — who have denied any wrongdoing by their clients — said they would respect Clark’s longtime “wishes for privacy” in not commenting further.
A source said there would be no funeral for Clark. Bock has said she signed a will about six years ago — but her beneficiaries and how much they will receive had not been made public as of yesterday.
The DA’s office had no comment.
