Opinion ID: 2763493
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Background on the Diebold Family and Double-D

Text: Ranch, Inc. Richard Diebold was a major shareholder of American Home Products Corporation (AHP), a publicly traded corporation. In 1980, he formed Double-D Ranch, Inc. as a personal holding company for investment assets, including shares of AHP, other marketable securities, and real estate. Richard Diebold was married to Dorothy Diebold, and they had three children. When Richard Diebold died in 1996, ownership of all the stock of Double-D was transferred to the Dorothy R. Diebold Marital Trust. The marital trust had three cotrustees: Dorothy Diebold; the Bessemer Trust Co.; and Andrew Bisset, Dorothy Diebold’s personal attorney. Austin Power, Jr. was a senior vice president at Bessemer Trust who served as counsel and primary account manager for the marital trust. In 1999 Dorothy Diebold was 94 years old and “anxious” to make cash gifts to her children. Power explained to her that the marital trust was insufficiently liquid to make such gifts, but she would be able to make cash gifts if she were to sell the shares of Double-D. After this explanation, “she was anxious for [Bessemer] to proceed with the sale of the Double D Ranch,” and the other trustees agreed. SALUS MUNDI FOUNDATION V. CIR 5 As part of the decision to sell Double-D, the marital trust transferred one-third of the Double-D shares to the Diebold Foundation, a charitable foundation incorporated by Richard Diebold in 1963 in New York. In 1999 its directors were Dorothy Diebold, Bisset, and Dorothy Diebold’s three adult children. Each of the three adult children intended to organize their own foundations, one of which became the Salus Mundi Foundation. The directors of the Diebold Foundation planned to sell the shares of Double-D and distribute the money to the children’s foundations. Power was given primary responsibility by the Double-D shareholders to sell the shares of Double-D.