Succession battle for Murdoch empire to play out in secret in Nevada court

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 9 Sep 2024 10.34 EDT
Last modified on Mon 9 Sep 2024 15.05 EDT


The battle between Rupert Murdoch and his children over the future of his media empire begins this week as observers attempt to force the court to make the secretive dispute public. Murdoch wants to change the structure of his family trust to give all voting power to his oldest son, Lachlan. If successful, Murdoch’s other adult children, Prudence, James and Elisabeth, will lose their voting power.

Of the children, Lachlan is the most politically aligned with his father while his younger siblings have expressed reservations about the direction of the companies, particularly during Donald Trump’s presidency. Both sides have hired high-profile lawyers to oversee the case. Murdoch is working with the former US attorney general William Barr, who is helping him rewrite the trust, and Adam Streisand, a trial lawyer who has worked on the estate cases of Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.

Though the trial will have enormous consequences for Murdoch’s holdings, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch is fighting to ensure it will largely take place away from the public eye. The only information available to the public are the key dates of the trial, which is being held in Reno, Nevada, listed on the court’s website.

The trial is slated to have a status conference on 9 September followed by a series of evidentiary hearings starting 16 September. A coalition of six national news outlets – the Associated Press, CNN, NPR, the New York, Reuters and the Washington Post – have filed requests to access proceedings and unseal court records.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/sep/09/rupert-murdoch-media-empire-succession-trial

[rpannier]

1. What makes this extra interesting is that it is an "Irrevocable Trust"

According to Nevada Current:

Even though Murdoch’s trust is irrevocable, it reportedly “contains a narrow provision allowing for changes done in good faith and with the sole purpose of benefiting all of its members.” Rupert Murdoch’s argument is that by taking away governance rights from James, Elisabeth and Prudence, Lachlan will be able to manage the family business more profitably, thereby increasing the value of trust assets for all beneficiaries.

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In Nevada, where the Murdoch case is playing out, a settlor can’t unilaterally change any trust’s terms unless the trust itself specifically reserves the right to do so. In other words, trusts are presumed to be irrevocable, or irreversible.

But even when a trust is irrevocable, there are still ways to change its terms.

In any state, including Nevada, irrevocable trusts can be altered by court order if the settlor and all beneficiaries agree to the modification. In some cases, trusts can also be modified without court approval through a process known as “trust decanting,” which can be performed by the trustee without the consent of settlors or beneficiaries.

This is the source of where this began (according to NC)

The trust terms at the center of this dispute appear to stem from Murdoch’s 1999 divorce from his second wife, Anna. She negotiated an agreement to ensure that their three joint children – Lachlan, James and Elisabeth – along with Prudence, Murdoch’s daughter from an earlier marriage, would inherit News Corp.

source:
https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/07/31/the-future-of-rupert-murdochs-media-empire-could-hinge-on-a-legal-effort-in-nevada/