Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Leona Helmsley’s will valued at $8billion goes to the dogs

Sure, the New York hotelier and real estate magnate Leona Helmsley left $12 million in her will to her dog, Trouble. But that, it turns out, is nothing much compared with what other dogs may receive from the charitable trust of Helmsley, who died last August.

Her instructions, specified in a two-page “mission statement,” are that the entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion and amounting to virtually all her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs, say two people who have seen the document and who described it on condition of anonymity.

It is by no means clear, however, that all the money will go to dogs. Another provision of the mission statement says Helmsley’s trustees may use their discretion in distributing the money, and some lawyers said the statement may not mean much anyway, given that its directions were not incorporated into Helmsley’s will or the trust documents.

read the rest published by IHT here:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/02/america/dogs.php