Newsmaker

Son sentenced for stealing mom's millions

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-23 09:03

The 85-year-old son of philanthropist Brooke Astor was sentenced Monday to as many as three years in prison for exploiting her mental frailty to plunder her millions, but the legal saga surrounding the society doyenne's fortune will persist with planned appeals.

Anthony Marshall (pictured) showed little emotion as state Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley sentenced him to one to three years in prison - the minimum term his conviction required - for looting his mother's fortune. She gave away nearly $200 million to institutions and charities before she died at age 105 in 2007.

Marshall will remain free for at least the next month as his defense lawyers try to persuade an appeals court to let him stay free on bail indefinitely while his planned appeal plays out.

The judge noted Marshall's World War II service and the possibility that the late Astor herself would have been aghast to see her son imprisoned, but he added that the law left him no choice but to impose a prison term.

AP-Reuters