Philanthropist Convicted for Role in Managing Widow’s Trust

A Los Angeles court has ordered Neil Kadisha, an investor and philanthropist for local and Israeli causes, to pay a widow $100-million after using her trust fund to bankroll financial schemes, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Kadisha became the caretaker of Dafna Uzyel’s $6-million trust fund after her husband, a friend of Mr. Kadisha’s, died in 1988.

In a highly unusual move, Mr. Kadisha convinced Ms. Uzyel, an Israeli native who spoke little English, to sign documents that authorized him to make investments and said he would not face legal trouble if the investments soured.

Mr. Kadisha invested the money in technology stocks. Lucky for him, and the trust fund, he picked a winner: Qualcomm, a San Diego firm whose worth took off in the 1990s. Mr. Kadisha is worth $910-million, and the worth of Ms. Uzyel’s trust jumped from $6-million to $27-million because of his investments.

However, the judge in the case ruled that Mr. Kadisha nonetheless acted recklessly and that the success of his gamble did not make it legal. Mr. Kadisha said the ruling against him was slanderous—it repeatedly referred to him as an embezzler—and plans to appeal the decision.

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