An adviser who oversaw the wealth of a well-known Boston family allegedly led a "double life" and stole $57 million to buy several airplanes, houses, and timeshares for his family and his mistress, authorities said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts yesterday indicted John Doorly, who has managed the
trust funds left behind by wealthy New England industrialist Frederick Ayer, on charges that he looted millions of dollars from the family for more than a decade.
The Ayer family, which has several hundred million dollars in trusts held for more than 100 of the industrialist’s descendants, began asserting in 2006 that Mr. Doorly had stolen family money for his personal use.
And through a family attorney, the Ayer's noted that the federal indictment now "clearly spells out how Doorly led a 'double life' and exploited the
trust of his victims" to provide personal extravagancies to "himself, his wife and son, and his mistress."
The attorney went on to put Mr. Doorly in some dubious company: "Doorly looted this family out of tens of millions of dollars and joins the likes of disgraced money manager [Bernard] Madoff," stated Will Nystrom, an attorney at Boston-based law firm Nystrom Beckman and Paris LLP.
Marc Salinas, an attorney at Andrews & Updegraph P.C. representing Mr. Doorly, said his client denies all of the allegations in the indictment and will plead not guilty to all of the charges. Mr. Salinas said that his firm is in the process of reviewing the indictment and is planning for a trial, although a specific date for a court hearing has not yet been set.
Mr. Doorly, 60, allegedly pilfered the assets from the Ayers family
trust through various different tactics, according to charges in the indictment. He is said to have stolen roughly $10 million over the course of eight years when he "systematically overcharged" the trusts for accounting and administrative fees that were 60% greater than the trusts' actual operating expenses, according to the indictment.
Mr. Doorly, who was also responsible for managing the cash portion of the Ayers' family
trust, allegedly managed to steal another $13 million from an internal money market fund he created and oversaw for the family.
The money was then used by Mr. Doorly to fund a number of personal purchases and business ventures, according to federal investigators. Aside from buying real estate, three airplanes, timeshares and golf club memberships, the indictment claims that Mr. Doorly put the money toward the “payments of extravagant credit card expenses,” investments in side businesses, real estate, and construction projects, and also to make “unsecured loans to friends and acquaintances.”
If convicted on the charges brought by federal investigators, Mr. Doorly faces up to 20 years in prison, followed by five years of supervision and a fine of up to $250,000.
