A man accused of using "undue influence" to take control of his high-powered financier boyfriend's $260 million estate is now a whole lot richer.
Landscape architect Andrew Gordon has been cleared to collect on the vast majority of legendary moneyman Christopher Browne's estate - including his $25 million Park Avenue apartment and $75 million East Hampton spread - after a dozen of Browne's relatives and friends dropped their court challenges to his 2008 will, the Daily News has learned.
Browne died "alone, in a bar" in December 2009, court papers say. He was 62.
Ten relatives and two friends had accused Gordon of taking advantage of Browne's alcoholism and "diminished mental state" to further line his pockets with the Tweedy, Browne Co. director's money.
Gordon quietly reached a confidential settlement with the angry twelve in December, leading Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Nora Anderson to find the will was "validly executed" and Browne was "competent" to sign it.
In is unclear how much of the $260 million estate Gordon will share with the others.
Browne's longtime former personal chef, Joseph Ouellette, is the last remaining challenger to the estate - claiming the greedy architect turned his $4 million inheritance into zero.
Ouellette's Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit refers to Gordon as "a cross between the American Gigolo and Claus von Bulow," referring to the socialite murder suspect.
Ouellette accuses Gordon of manipulating the drunkard financier into essentially cutting off what was once a $4 million inheritance, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Ouellette's lawyer, Tom Mullaney, says what Gordon did to his client is simply "unfair."
"Maybe it is possible that someone would actually plan on spending of every penny of $250 million, but it seems unlikely to me that the money that was promised to Mr. Ouellette is really necessary to maintain Mr. Gordon's lifestyle," said Mullaney.
Ouellette, who'd worked for Browne since 1991, said he was Browne's "confidante." When he and his wife planned to move France in 2001, Browne convinced them to stay by buying an apartment for them to live in on E. 57th Street, the filings say.
He asked Ouellette how many children they planned on having, because he wanted to build a home for them on his sprawling 18 acre Hamptons estate, the filings say. When Ouellette told Browne he was worried about his lack of a pension, Browne allegedly told him he was leaving him a small fraction of the estate, and "I'm going to be so f-ing rich when I die, don't worry about it."
But Gordon, the filings say, saw Ouellette as a threat, and after Browne suffered a brain injury in a 2007 spill in his apartment, he began to make his move against him.
He pressured the increasingly addled Browne to reduce the amount of money he was leaving in his will to Ouellette to $100,000 - and to force him to move out of the E. 57th St. apartment within six months of his death. And if Ouellette wasn't in Browne's employ at the time of his death, he'd get nothing.
Browne went to rehab within a couple of months of signing the revised will, but it didn't take, court papers say.
A few weeks later, Browne suffered a heart attack while in a Florida bar by himself and died, the filings say.
When the will was read, Ouellette discovered he wasn't getting anything because he'd been let go - and that he had two weeks to clear out of "his" apartment. Mullaney called that "particularly cruel."
Gordon's lawyer, Patrick Collins, declined comment on Ouellette's suit and the settlement.
Gordon's court filings say he was devoted and loving partner to Browne, and didn't take advantage of him. He also contends a judge should throw out the chef's challenge, because he doesn't have anything in writing to back his claim.
Mullaney said Gordon and his team have been using technicalities in a bid "to deprive my client of something that any kindergartener could understand was promised to him."
By Dareh Gregorian / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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