Benson Adds $522M To Saints-Pelicans Ownership Swap

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The owner of New Orleans' national football and basketball teams has added $522 million in promissory notes to his former heirs' trust funds to try to get back the trusts' nonvoting shares in the Saints and Pelicans.

         Papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court describe the move, The New Orleans Advocate’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reported Sunday.

         Tom Benson, 88, is suing the stewards of two trusts that hold the shares for his daughter, Renee Benson, and her children, Rita and Ryan LeBlanc. He wants his current wife, Gayle Benson, to inherit complete ownership of the teams.

- Sponsors -

         Benson can take back the shares if he replaces them with assets of equal value.

         He tried to swap $400 million in promissory notes for the stock in January, but steward Robert Rosenthal said that was not enough, according to the court filing.

         On Monday, after a new appraisal of the teams' worth, it said, Benson put $478 million worth of promissory notes into one group of trusts benefiting Renee Benson and her children. He put promissory notes worth $44 million in a separate trust, making a total of $522 million.

- Partner Content -

Sunni LeBeouf

Black History Month Spotlight This Black History Month, Cox Communications is proud to recognize Sunni LeBeouf for her prolific record of professional achievement, civic philanthropy,...

         Benson's attorneys said their proposal to replace the shares with promissory notes is fair and appropriate. But Rosenthal has pointed out in the past that some of those notes wouldn't be fully due until Benson is 112, if he's still alive then.

         Benson contends that doesn't matter, because his estate would have to pay the notes.

         The federal suit, tentatively scheduled to go to trial next summer, is separate from a state court lawsuit seeking to have Benson declared mentally incompetent to cut Renee Benson and her children filed in February out of his businesses.

- Sponsors -

         A state district judge ruled for Benson in June, but his daughter and grandchildren have appealed to Louisiana's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.

         For more information

 

 

 

Digital Sponsors / Become a Sponsor

Follow the issues, companies and people that matter most to business in New Orleans.

Email Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter