EFTA02654189.pdf

From: Noam Chomsky < Sent: Saturday, July 7, 2018 11:34 PM To: Jeffrey E. Cc: Valeria Chomsky Subject: Fwd: Marital Trusts How about if I change it to ask him for an=accounting of the income from the trust that is supposed to come to me ann=ally, since 2009, when I appointed Harry to replace me. Before 2009 I suppose he'd say it was =y responsibility. Valeria t=lls me that we have never received any accounting about this income or any=hing else from Max about the Marital Trust =div style="font-size:small;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration=color:initial">About the 2014 payment for taxes, according to Valeria'= recollection, it was 2016, paying 2015 taxes. </=iv> Also, coincidentally or not, 2015 is the year of the mi=sing $117k that we've been repeatedly asking Deborah to inquire about =rom Bainco. Have been sending copies to you. No response from them s= far. It's a strange st=ry. On Jan 22 2015, a distribution of $187,000 was made from the IRA=to the NC Revocable Trust, but we have been unable to determine where thes= funds went. Bainco informed Deborah that it was wired to my checkin= account, but the only deposit was $70,000, not the full amount. The= have not yet provided any information about what happened to the other $1=7k. Noam Forwarded message From: Jeffrey E. < Proposed letter to Max, a= just explained. What do you think? Before responding to your letter in full, I woul= like to clarify a few matters. Interspersed below. </=iv> Noam =div class=" mail quote"> Forwarded message Max Kohlenberg &=t;MKohlenberg=hekblaw.com <mailto > Date: Sat, Jul 7, 2018 at 4:43 AM Subject= Marital Trusts To: Noam Chomsky < <mailt >> Cc: Richard Kahn <=a href= EFTA_R1_01898509 EFTA02654189 =div dir="ltr"> Noam —<=u> Thank you for your reply.=C2 As you indicate that you are not being represented by counsel I will=reply directly to you, with a copy to Rich (as you suggest). Please consider: 1. As a starting point,=let me note that I think you and Rich may have misunderstood (at least ini=ially) the terms of the settlement that Harry proposed through his attorney. Rich and I discussed this in a call about 10 d=ys ago and I'm hoping that misunderstanding has been cleared up, b=t as I'm not a party to your exchanges (and Rich's exchang=s) with Harry's attorney I can't be sure. I'= also not certain whether the terms of the proposed settlement have changed. All I can=say for sure is that characterizing the offer as one in which distribution= to you cannot exceed $100K per year is not consistent with my understandi=g of what has been offered. The reason why the proposal is too outrageous t= discuss has nothing to do with the technicalities of the handout that Har=y is graciously offering. I'll review the background, once again= As I've discusse= before, the Marital Trust was established in Carol's name for tax pur=oses. The obvious intention, clearly understood by Carol and me, and=of course Eric Menouya, was that it would be available to the survivor -- =arol we assumed -- and then what remains would go to the beneficiaries. =AO The idea that we intended that Carol would control "her" fund= and I would control "mine" is too ludicrous to discuss, though = understand the legalistic conjuring that can be adduced to reach this con=fusion. When I =ppointed Harry to replace me as trustee, I took for granted that he would =andle the trust as I had. His behavior since, and this latest propos=l, make it very clear how wrong that assumption was. This proposal c=Ils for him to be in complete charge, which means, as he has shown, that I=can only plead for some funds by accepting conditions that he knows I will=not accept. You recall, I presume, that this was true even when I fa=ed an enormous tax bill because my IRA was being depleted for the benefit =f the family. To refr=sh your memory, let me repeat again what was happening with my IRA until l=learned about it. There is a mandatory withdrawal. Half was be=ng distributed to family. The other half was being used for taxes an= management fees for the entire estate. In order to pay Alex's m=dical expenses, and to pay $50,000 a year for rent and upkeep on the house=in Wellfleet that we had given to the children and that I was barely using= I had to withdraw extra funds from the IRA, with the onerous tax burden.=C2 The same when I withdrew something to live on. Under these cir=umstances, Harry refused to release funds from the Trust for tax relief wi=hout onerous and humiliating conditions that he knew I would not accept.=C2 Easy to predict what might happen under less extreme conditions. =AO For such reasons, =arry's proposal is, as I said, too outrageous to discuss.</=> 2. As you know, Harry's attorney has comm=nced a legal action that is intended to facilitate my resignation and the =ppointment of a successor trustee to take my place. Since you've wanted me removed for some ti=e and since I've said (from the first time you and I met) that I o=ly wanted to serve as trustee if all the family members wanted me to serve= I'm looking forward to resigning as soon as the court determines how I am to do so and how my successor is to be selected. =C2 3. Given that my replac=ment is impending, it might be worth waiting until my successor is in plac= before responding to my requests for financial disclosure, as it's possible that my successor won't share my views as=to what 2 EFTA_R1_01898510 EFTA02654190 the trustee of the trusts needs to know before making decisions ab=ut distributions. Likewise, if my successor will be identified soon =t might make sense for me to hold off on any distributions and leave it to the new trustee to work with you on figuring all of this o=t. In this regard I'm kind of a "lame duck" =rustee, wouldn't you say? 4. =C2 To the extent that you want to push forward wh=Ie I remain the trustee, let me again state the basis for financial disclo=ure by you. It is that, as trustee, I owe a duty to you and I owe a duty to your children (as the =emainder beneficiaries of the trusts). For the present my primary du=y is to you and it is to distribute to you all income earned by the trusts= net of expenses, =/span> Until I asked about the ma=ter recently, I am aware of no income distributed to me earned from the tr=sts. I cannot be sure, because I also do not recall having received =ny accounting of what is happening to the trusts, including distributions =rom them to others (or as required, to me). Could you then please se=d me the records on these matters. </=iv> and to distribute to you (or pay on your behalf) additional monies as reasonably needed t= the extent that your income from other sources is not sufficient to suppo=t your reasonable expenses. c=pan style="font-size:11ptfont-family:Calibri,sans-seritcolorrgb(31,73=125)"> Notwithstanding=your statement that "As for the claim about concern for my later year=, that has been thoroughly refuted" it has not been refuted in the context of my trusteeship and it remains my=duty to consider distributions in light of the possibility that you will h=ve a reasonable need for distributions from the trust for many more years,=and perhaps in increasing amounts, depending on your circumstances in the future. I am=approaching 90. I'm not going to live forever. You know ho= much money is in the trust. How could there possibly be a concern a=out it being depleted? You know my lifestyle very well. Perhap= you recall the meeting in my office when you explained to me that I was g=ing to have to cut back on expenses, specifically to sell my boat, as I di=. None of this makes any sense. </=iv> 5. As for the specifics=of disclosure, what I need to consider is (a) what your income was in 2017= since that was the basis for the tax payments you seek to have reimbursed, (b) what your income is likely to be this year an= going forward, (c) what your expenses were in 2017 and are likely to be i= 2018, and (d) whether any of your income (or other resources) are being u=ed for purposes that the trust cannot support (such as gifts to third parties). =AOSo far, Rich has provided me with some rough information about your 2017=expenses. There are some gaps in that information, but nothing that =an't be cleared up pretty easily (I think). Rich has also as=ured me that you have not made any gifts that 3 EFTA_R1_01898511 EFTA02654191 have diminished your resources an= I assume you would confirm that to me. What I don't have at this point is enough informat=on about your income, so that I can consider what the gap is between your =xpenses and your income, which is the gap the trusts might help to close u=. With respect to your income in 2017, all I can see is that your income tax obligations seem to be much higher than they were pre=iously. I'm assuming that reflects a jump in income from (i)=the profit made on the sale of the condominium, and (ii) large withdrawals=from your IRA. If you want to provide me with more information (bearing in mind what I noted in item #3, above) then inf=rmation about your 2017 income and what your income is likely to be this y=ar is what I most need. =span> =span style="font-size:14.6667px">There is a very simple reason for th= income tax obligations. The depletion of the IRA that I reviewed ag=in above imposed a huge tax burden, which we were still attempting to deal=with in 2017. After Harry's refusal to release some funds from t=e trust to pay the exorbitant taxes resulting from what was happening, I o= course had to withdraw funds from the IRA to pay taxes on the whole estat=, incurring a new exorbitant tax burden. Despite some small relief l=ter from the trust after I had repeatedly pointed this out, it carried ove= through the 2017 tax bill. So for that reason, taxes were extremely=high. That curious episode is at last finally over, leaving many que=tions unresolved about what was happening while I was paying little attent=on, relying on advisers to ensure that matters were proceeding appropriate=y. <=iv lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"> I hope this is helpful an= will wait to hear more from you and/or Rich. Max<=p> A. Max Kohlenberg<=> Howland Evangelista Kohle=berg Burnett, LLP 4 EFTA_R1_01898512 EFTA02654192 www.hekblaw.com <http://www.hek=law.com/> This email and any attach=ents thereto are intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein an= may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notifi=d that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email, and any a=tachments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this=email in error, please immediately notify me by return email and permanently delete the original and any copy of thi= message or attachment. Thank you. From: Noam Cho=sky Imailto:[email protected] <mailto >j Sent: Friday, July 06, 2018 8:53 PM To: Max Kohlenberg Subject: Re: Marital Trust I am not represented=on this issue, so you can send the information to me directly, copying Ric=ard Kahn. Noam On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 4:24 AM, Max Kohlenberg «= href="mailto target="_blanle > wrote: Noam —<=u> Thanks for your message a=d your inquiry. I would like to reply in some detail, but before I d= so please tell me whether you are now represented by legal counsel. =f you are then I believe I'm obliged to copy your counsel on our e=changes. I would also plan on copying Rich Kahn, since my last commu=ications about distributions to you from the trusts have been with him. Please also bear in mind =hat since (according to Rich) you are preparing to bring a legal action against me, I have been in contact with my firm's malpractice insu=ance carrier. As my exchanges with you may also need to be reviewed =ith our carrier that may delay (and/or limit) my responses.<=> 5 EFTA_R1_01898513 EFTA02654193 </=> Max<=p> </=> </=> A. Max Kohlenberg<=> Howland Evangelista Kohle=berg Burnett, LLP One Financial Plaza =80 Suite 1600 Providence, Rhode Island =2903 Direct: 401.283.123= Main: 401.283.1234<=span> Fax: 401.283.12214=pan> <maiIto:[email protected]> </=> www.hekblaw.com <http://www.hek=law.com/> </a </=> This email and any attach=ents thereto are intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. =f you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notifie= that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email, and any at=achments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify me by =eturn email and permanently delete the original and any copy of this messa=e or attachment. Thank you. From: Noam Cho=sky Imailto:[email protected] <mailto >] Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2018 7:53 PM To: Max Kohlenberg Subject: Marital Trust 6 EFTA_R1_01898514 EFTA02654194 Max,=u> I presume it is clear that the rec=nt proposal transmitted by Harry's lawyer that I should be satisfi=d with a handout of 100k a year from the Marital Trust is too disgraceful for comment. I would like to know what further information you require for reimbursement for tax payment. We have previously t=ansmitted a great deal of financial information in order for you to reimbu=se our taxes, including proof of payment and more. Exactly what more do you require, and with what justi=ication? We see little reason that you cannot act on the information=already provided. As for the claim about concern for my later =ears, that has been thoroughly refuted. Noam </=iv> please no=e The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information= and is intended only for the use of the addressee. It is the property =f JEE Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communicati=n or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If yo= have received this communication in error, please notify us immediate!= by return e-mail or by e-mail to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]=m> , and destroy this commun=cation and all copies thereof, including all attachments. copyright -al= rights reserved 7 EFTA_R1_01898515 EFTA02654195