One of the richest fundsters in history is facing accusations of helping defraud the son of one of Franklin's early allies out of $150 million in Franklin Resources [profile] stock and dividends.

William Cohan of the New York Times reports that yesterday Anthony P. Miele III filed a lawsuit in federal court. The complaint revolves around a $100,000 loan Miele's father, Anthony Miele Jr., gave to Franklin in the early 1970s, and the 4,000 shares of Franklin stock Miele Jr. received as a bonus. That stock would translate into 2,531,250 shares today, worth about $130 million, plus $20 million in uncashed dividends.

Miele Jr. died of an apparent heart attack in 1974 when his son was 3, and the son claims he was never informed about the shares. Miele III claims that Johnson and Franklin turned down an offer from a Bank of New York to find Miele III in the 1990s, and that Johnson later delegated finding Miele III to Eugene Mulvihill, the Mayflower Securities Company owner who originally connected Johnson and Miele Jr.

To dig deeper into the saga of the case, read the full New York Times article. Both Forbes and the San Francisco Business Times also covered the suit. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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