Results tagged “greed”

Some of the jurors who endured the 19-week-long trial surrounding the late Brooke Astor's estate explained their decision to find Astor's 85-year-old son guilty of grand larceny. Yvonne Fernandez, 52, said of Anthony Marshall, whom prosecutors said was driven to loot his mother's fortune for his wife Charlene, "It sort of reminded me, when I was in Brooklyn years ago and there was a blackout, and the lower-income people were stealing refrigerators and TVs, and they felt that was due to them," adding, "We all have our flaws, and you know, of course, the flaw here was greed."

Today, on the eve of the G8 meeting in Italy, Pope Benedict issued an encyclical letter discussing the economic crisis, specifically noting the problems with greed. He wrote, "Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty."

In her successful attempt to appeal to working class primary voters, Senator Hillary Clinton has been catching heat from Wall Street. The Sun notes that yesterday, her camp dawdled for 24 hours before correcting reports that she had asked an audience in Indiana: “Why don’t we hold these Wall Street money-grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?” The quote angered some in the financial industry; after all they're not money-grubbers, they're money-hoarders.

Anthony Marshall, the only son of New York society legend Brooke Astor, pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of criminal activity related to the handling of his mother's finances. The 83-year-old former Marine spoke in court once (to utter "not guilty") and, after his bond was approved, left the courthouse using a cane. He also apparently cried. Among the accusations the Manhattan DA's office made against Marshall and his former lawyer Francis Morrissey (a PDF...

New York magazine has an extraordinary cover story on the life of Brooke Astor, months after the "doyenne" of the city's social scene passed away. It is a sordid tale of jealousy, greed, enmity, conflicting agendas, and familial conflict worthy of the most outlandish soap opera. Her son Tony is now under i investigation by a grand jury and control of her estate has passed to Astor's friend Annette de la Renta. The litany of...