Double Feature: Pope Squabble Spills Into Courts
Submitted by James on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 9:59pm
Alert reader Max the Dog pointed out today that Art Pope is in the news again, this time airing dirty laundry in yet another family feud.
Jane Forbes Pope, who married into one of Raleigh's most affluent and politically influential families, is not entitled to inherit $50 million from her deceased husband's estate. In a nine-page order, Jan Pueschel, clerk of Wake Superior Court, ruled that Jane Forbes Pope, who was married to John W. Pope Jr. for four years, will not receive half of her husband's money that was transferred to a Pope family foundation after his death in March 2004. The Popes own Variety Wholesalers Inc., which runs discount retail stores across the Southeast, such as Roses and Maxway stores, with an estimated $800 million in annual sales.
Raleigh lawyer Stuart Dorsett, who represents Jane Forbes Pope, said they would appeal the clerk's ruling to Wake Superior Court. Jane Forbes Pope challenged the actions of her brother-in-law, Art Pope, a Raleigh lawyer and former legislator, and sister-in-law, Amanda Joyce Pope, who moved the funds out of a family trust to the foundation after John Pope Jr. died.
In case you're wondering what all this means, here's my best attempt at a translation of the Pope siblings' message to the forlorn widow: Screw the greedy bitch. Daddy didn't mean for some gold-digging interloper to get her filthy hands on our hard-earned family money.
Without a share of the trust funds, all that Jane Forbes Pope will receive is the proceeds of the estate, which were almost $5 million. The widow also has a pending lawsuit in Wake Superior court claiming her husband's siblings fraudulently tried to keep her from her rightful inheritance. Art Pope has previously predicted that he and his sister would be vindicated in that litigation as well.
I can see why Art Pope wants to keep his hands on all his daddy's cash. He's currently burning $3+ million each year just to keep the Puppetshow itself plodding along. Plus he's also contributing millions to just about any department that will have him at NC State University, turning that once-admired academic institution into what looks from here like a second-class whore. (Sorry BlueSouth, but your alma mater is most definitely on the blocks.)
So go the days of their lives. To my knowledge.
For the record
Just to be clear, the Puppetmaster's money occasionally does some good things. Too bad they're always offset by his free-market extremism and partisan purity.
To my knowledge.
Do I have to stop shopping at Roses??
Every time I go to University Mall in Chapel Hill, I'm happy to see the Roses there because it clearly serves the town's less affluent customers and performs a needed service. In fact as I write this I'm wearing a cheap polo shirt that I got there for less than $4.00 - all cotton, too.
Now you're telling me than when I spend money there that it goes to Art Pope!!??
Please, Anglico, can I go there once in a while? You've just gone and ruined my blissful ignorance!!!?? Waaaa!! ;-)
-- ge
Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
http://george.entenman.name
Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
http://zabouti.tumblr.com
Yes, you have to stop.
I used to buy my Tarheel gear there, but since Anglico brought this up a year ago or so, I have stopped going. This is one time when you are better serving the community by going to Target. Or, somewhere else.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Yes, but
as I say below, it's a moral dilemma. I've become friends with some of the workers there.
I go there too
I talk to the people who work there about their jobs and their benefits (which pretty much suck). And I also buy stuff once or twice a year because I want those folks to be able to keep those jobs if they want them.
But I never pay cash because I want Visa to take its income off the top, which means Pope makes almost nothing on the low-margin things I buy.
It's a moral dilemma.