Pitching from the inside

This story is about being too close to the story

I tell stories from the front and back lines of the newsroom. This story is about being too close to the story.

My birthday is next week. So let me start from the very beginning. My dad’s parents lived in a trailer on the side of the highway in Vermont. Dad taught me my work ethic. The two of us used to watch the WCAX evening news together on the couch. Dad was a proud high school coach. Sometimes his baseball, football or ski teams would be mentioned on air. My love of news started on that couch in Vermont.

My mom’s dad taught me about business. My first passport was when I was a baby. Papa lived in the Netherlands when I was an infant. Papa also lived in New Jersey. He owned property on a mountain in Vermont and Martha’s Vineyard.

I summered on the Vineyard.

Something is really wrong with my story. I use summer as a verb. And I can't afford a lawyer.

I am absolutely not ashamed of everything my grandfather built. He worked for AT&T when it was still a private company. According to Rutgers, his alma mater, he was the president in August 1983. I wasn’t even born yet. Papa retired from AT&T after 40 years with the company and moved to Florida.

My grandfather made me think anything was possible. Papa built his estate whilst battling polio. He helped me navigate a career with multiple sclerosis. My grandfather established a revocable trust in my grandmother’s name in 2003, which was later modified to be irrevocable in 2019. Papa worked in human resources. My grandfather taught me about layoffs. He knew how to build an entire financial infrastructure for his grandchildren. And his granddaughter was talked down to by the same bank that helped him build it.

Papa signed a new will on my birthday in 2024. On my birthday. The people who witnessed that will signing were employees of the Bank named as fiduciary in that same document. This isn’t the only conflict of interest in this story. My grandfather had polio. He had difficulty holding a pen. Papa had my step-grandmother sign my birthday checks for years before this will signing.

Did I tell you I died? I didn’t. But someone named “Molly Stark” had a Palm Beach County probate case opened in her name on July 20, 2024. The bank had a busier year. The CFTC and the DOJ fined the bank millions of dollars.

Then Papa died. The Bag Man had access to his email that day. I call him a bag man because he’s the man who the bank sent to help my step-grandmother pay her bills. Zero credentials. But I don’t want to talk about him during my birth month. I don't want to talk about the man who is my step-grandmother's emergency contact. Because I don't know how long it took for my family to get notified after she had a stroke.

Six months passed between when my grandfather died and when my family’s accounts were opened with another bank. The original bank quit as trustee but kept managing the money. They shed the fiduciary liability. They kept the revenue. My mailing address isn't even listed. My Brooklyn apartment is absent. The address of the new bank is listed. The bank asserted that their compliance department instructed them not to send me statements because I’m not “a trustee.” The account I was asking about is in my name.

Another conflict of interest that the bank never disclosed. Until I found it. They admitted it. The person administering distributions is guaranteed a financial floor from the same estate. The bank said it was common. And allowed. But never explained why it wasn’t disclosed to me as a qualified beneficiary.

I love spreadsheets. So I created a document directory spreadsheet. A Florida investigator said to me that “you can do a lot with a spreadsheet.” A connection on LinkedIn contacted me. Stephen Kovach. His last message to me was asking media advice. I felt bad that I never got back to him. He claimed to be a wealth manager who read my story and wanted to help. He had thousands of followers and a clean BrokerCheck record. I wanted to talk to a wealth professional who knows about this type of situation. I spoke to him for almost an hour on the phone. He asked to see my case file.

At 3:28 am, days later, my newsie sense went off: “I gave my file to someone. Did I do all my due diligence?” I noticed how lame his website was. But lots of people have bad sites. I checked him out on BrokerCheck again. It checked out again. Then I went back to where we met, LinkedIn. His messages were gone. I clicked to show them again. And took several screenshots. I tell myself that it's not that big of a problem. My case file was compromised.

It just adds another element to this story that's already impossible to pitch. The Facebook views from suspicious accounts started appearing. But I said I wanted to keep the Bag Man talk to a minimum during my birth month. My mom called to ask me to apologize to the bank. My mom only calls to talk about the estate. Even when I was in the emergency room. I track my emails. And the bank has been viewing my emails at an alarming rate. 1,900 views from several different locations.

Meanwhile, the final accounting listed everything as zero. A nice Florida probate clerk helped me file a caveat to get this information. The docket lists every item as zero. The personal representative filed a sworn court document listing receipts, disbursements, distributions, capital transactions and assets on hand: all at zero. The trust held millions of assets at the time of my grandfather’s death. The same helpful clerk told me that it would take a tank to open probate if it closed.

Deadlines and missed deadlines and other new deadlines from different sides of the story come and go. Several government agencies opened case files. Lawyers told me that this is fraud. A government official told me to “keep going.”

Last July, I thought that my grandfather's obituary was going to be the last time I wrote about Papa. Maybe I would mention his support as a thank you somewhere. It's the only story I know how to write right now. An editor-in-chief said this is “uttery awful and insane.”

I started the #PapaStarkFund because the bank is withholding paperwork. Legal fees would help me get closer to the truth.

If you can't donate, please share.

Freddy Furiosa thinks you are the greatest.