Tony Bennett’s two daughters have filed a new lawsuit against their older brother, alleging he “abused” his power over their father’s estate for “significant financial gain.”
Johanna and Antonia Bennett have accused D’Andrea “Danny” Bennett of “improper and unlawful conduct” in his role as trustee over the family estate, claiming he’s gone against their father’s wishes that all four of his children “be treated equally.”
“Since Tony’s death, Johanna and Antonia have discovered that Danny exercised complete and unchecked control over Tony and his financial affairs prior to and following his death through multiple fiduciary and other roles of authority that Danny has abused, and continues to abuse, for his own significant financial gain,” lawyers for the Bennett sisters wrote in the suit, filed Monday.
The sisters claim that Danny paid himself “excessive and unearned commissions” and gave “substantial loans and gifts to himself and his children” prior to their father’s death in 2023.
“Danny engaged in these improper transactions without accountability or oversight of any kind, freely using and controlling Tony’s assets and trust assets often as if they were Danny’s own,” the suit reads.
It claims Danny took advantage of his father’s diminished capacity late in life due to Alzheimer’s disease to make deals for himself and his company, including the sale of Tony Bennett’s catalogue and his name, likeness and image rights to the brand development firm, Iconoclast, shortly before the singer’s death.
The filing comes after a lawsuit in June of 2024, when the sisters sued Danny, alleging he had mishandled their father’s assets and requesting that he open the books for the family trust so any and all money could be accounted for.
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In court filings in the previous lawsuit, his lawyers said the sisters’ claims were baseless, that they had been provided with sufficient accounting, and that their father trusted Danny completely during his life and that the entertainer credited him for pulling him out of financial troubles and reviving his career.
Danny was his father’s personal and professional manager with power of attorney and was the manager of his company, Benedetto Arts. He is the trustee of the family trust, the suit says.
The new lawsuit accuses him of benefiting from “self-interested and conflicted transactions, excessive and unearned commissions,” and “substantial loans and gifts to himself and his children” that have diminished assets that Tony’s will calls for his four children to split equally.
Another brother, Daegal “Dae” Bennett, and Tony’s widow, Susan Bennett, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The sisters claim that the US$245,000 they each received from the estate is “nowhere close to what they believe they are entitled to receive.”
They also allege that Danny discarded sentimental items that belonged to their father in a “malicious and retaliatory manner” after the previous lawsuit.
Bennett’s piano, which Antonia says was promised to her, was in “terrible condition” when they were allowed to see it in a tour of the singer’s apartment, where they say they were denied access to much of his property.
The 38-page lawsuit states that at the time of Tony’s death in 2022, his assets were valued at $12 million, but the sisters claim his lifetime earnings exceeded $100 million.
“Johanna and Antonia have not received any credible explanation about what happened to Tony’s substantial lifetime earnings prior to his death,” the suit reads.
They also allege Danny took two loans from the family trust for a total of more than $1 million and sold their father’s name and likeness rights and the royalty stream to his music without consultation.
While Danny’s lawyers have not commented on the latest lawsuit, a source close to him told Billboard magazine that the most recent case is “yet another baseless attempt to distort the public and the court’s understanding of Tony Bennett’s clearly stated wishes” for his estate.
“Danny has followed his father’s plans with integrity and care, and it is disappointing that those Tony supported throughout his life — and continues to support through his estate — are now challenging Danny’s integrity with unsubstantiated and unfounded claims,” the source is quoted as saying.
Tony Bennett died in 2023 at the age of 96. Prior to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, he released more than 70 albums and was awarded 19 Grammy Awards.
— With files from The Associated Press
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