Strickland heir wants compliance with court order

The sole heir of the late Mabel Strickland, founder, with her father, of The Times newspaper, is insisting that the executors of his aunt’s will comply with a court order to show him the valid instrument for the transfer of a 78% shareholding in Allied Newspapers, to the Strickland Foundation.

Robert Hornyold-Strickland, the second largest shareholder in Allied, is locked in a court battle with the foundation because he insists that as the sole heir of the Strickland estate he is the rightful owner of the Strickland Foundation’s 78% shareholding.

In a court order handed down by a judge earlier this month, Hornyold-Strickland was recognised as the executor of his aunt’s will and that he was entitled to see the full documentation of any interest income, dividend payments, and share transfers carried out by the executors – the late Guido de Marco and Prof. Joseph Ganado, who resigned as testamentary executor due to health reasons.

“The executors’ files were created after my aunt’s death and relate to the administration of the assets by the executors. There is no dispute that these files are created for the heir and for the courts, but they have not been handed over in original form by the Ganados, who are in possession of the files,” Hornyold-Strickland told MaltaToday.

De Marco and Ganado held Mabel Strickland’s entire 92% shareholding in Allied Newspapers from her death in 1988 up until 2010 in their names as executors for her estate.

Hornyold-Strickland insists that it was his aunt’s declared wish that the executors safeguard his inheritance until he becomes a Maltese citizen.

Between 1988 and 1998, dividends from Allied were correctly paid to the executors. In 1998 they transferred a 13% shareholding to Hornyold-Strickland, who settled over €1 million in death dues on the Strickland estate.

But Hornyold-Strickland has taken issue with the payment of dividends from the Allied group to the Strickland Foundation from 1998 until 2010, because the foundation was not even a shareholder in Allied Newspapers.

“The executors held the 78% shareholding in their names for a further 12 years, for reasons only known to them. Suddenly, in 2010, with no reference to me whatsoever, they transferred these shares to the Strickland Foundation without my approval, just days after I had filed my first court action against the same executors for their bizarre interpretation of my aunt’s will,” Hornyold-Strickland said, who has also filed another court action contesting the share transfer.

Today the Strickland Foundation appears as the 78% shareholder of the Allied group.

“I estimate that the net dividends wrongly paid to the Strickland Foundation during this period totalled at least €2.5 million and they should now be repaid to the company. I was expecting to see this income disclosed in the final executorship accounts filed in Court but it was not included.”

Hornyold-Strickland claims he cannot account for the way the money was spent, suggesting that generous stipends could have been paid to the foundation’s council members. “My aunt expected council members to give their time freely, to a charity, for the time needed to administer its assets and make charitable disbursements in accordance with Mabel’s original stated wishes.”

Hornyold-Strickland says that Ganado’s son Max has provided him with some photocopied documentation, a lot of which is unrelated to the executors’ accounts. “For instance he has not provided me with bank statements of the accounts, although the Lombard bank mandates were provided and surprisingly showed that both Max Ganado and de Marco’s son Mario were signatories on these accounts, even though they were never executors. The original documentation and proof concerning the 2010 transfer has also not been provided to date and surprisingly Allied can no longer find the company shareholders’ register either.”

But the Strickland Foundation disagrees with Hornyold-Strickland (see page 22). Ronald Agius, the acting chair of the foundation, said that Mabel Strickland chose not to make Hornyold-Strickland the majority shareholder of The Times.
“She preferred instead to hand over the majority share ownership to the Strickland Foundation. By virtue of her will, the foundation owns 581 shares in Allied whilst Hornyold-Strickland owns 99 shares,” Agius said.

He also said that Hornyold-Strickland omits the fact that as a shareholder he himself has received dividend payments. “Since when is it scandalous for a company to pass on dividends to its shareholders… the Strickland Foundation’s income comes from the investments bequeathed to it by Ms Strickland, primarily its shares in Allied Group. This income is used by the Foundation to pursue its goals.”
Hornyold-Strickland says that since the courts accepted Prof. Joseph Ganado’s resignation as executor and appointed him, the heir, to fulfil any remaining executor’s duties, he must have access to all the executor’s files and any of the original documentation as ordered by Judge Anthony Ellul.