Trusted family attorney ‚ ¨Made off" with entire family estate.

Centurycitynews.com
Published 03/16/2010 - 11:29 a.m. PST


Since the Bernie Madoff schemes erupted in the news, courts have been seeing many individual cases where the trusted family attorney-accountant set up a complicated series of trusts for estate planning and asset protection, and then all of the money seemed to disappear.  Because the trusted family attorney converted and self dealt with 16 trusts at one time, the pattern of deception was readily perceptible, and there were enough motivated attorneys to devote the time and energy to unravel the complex array of trusts and entities.  A Century City Rotarian has been involved in such a case, and he pointed us to the court records or this emerging story.  The court record seems to say it all.  This is the first in a series of five pieces about how the trusted family attorney made off with the entire Alta Dena estate, and what has been done, and what is being done to restore it to the family.  This article is based entirely on the documents in the court record.

Part 1

Since 2009, Bernard Madoff name has become infamous as the architect and mastermind who craftily engineered the financial theft of billions of dollars from his clients:  close family members, longtime friends, hedge fund managers, charitable foundations.  The Steuve family, a storied and historic family of hardworking dairy farmers who formed the famous Southland dairy commonly known as Alta Dena Dairy, had, unbeknownst to them, a person masterminding the theft of all of the assets and liquidity.  Unfortunately for the Stueve family, their Madoff was their own family attorney and trustee of all of their charitable foundations-- Raymond A Novell.

Raymond A Novell, also known as ‚ ¨SRan‚ ¨ù, grew up near the Stueve farm and creamery, even working for the Stueve family in their ‚ ¨Scash and carry‚ ¨ù business while in high school.  Novell also attended high school with the Stueve daughters, went on a summer tour of Europe with one of the Stueve sons, and was so close to the family that he promised to walk one of the Stueve grandchildren down the aisle at her wedding.  Novell was also always there for the large Stueve family functions-- the birthday parties, the weddings, the after school sports events, the anniversary celebrations.  So it was no surprise in the 1980s that Novell became the company attorney, yet he was unsuccessful in defending the Stueves in a lawsuit which cost the family $10,000,000.  The founders of the Alta Dena Dairy were three Stueve Brothers:  Edgar, Harold and Elmer Steve, who are all now deceased.  The brothers were hardworking German farmers, who prized being loyal and having character, and so they kept Raymond Novell as their attorney, despite his weak legal representation. 

Moreover, while representing the family, Novell had trouble with the State Bar of California.  He admitted to having misappropriated client funds from his attorney-client trust account and he was suspended from the practice of law for 40 days in 2001, from approximately November 2001 to January 2002.  Novell was placed on two years probation.  However, during his suspension, and while prohibited from the practice of law, Novell continued to work on the Stueve family legal work, forming the EHE Family Foundation, which is one of the centers from which deception and thievery evolves.  It appears that none of the Stueve family members knew about his suspension from the California State Bar and Novell neglected to inform them.

Before Raymond Novell started handling their business and family affairs, the Stueve brothers had a combined wealth of over $50,000,000.00.  The Stueves, having a family estate of considerable value through decades of hard work in the dairy business, wanted only to ensure that their family estate could be organized and managed so as to: first, provide income to fund the relatively modest living expenses the family members; and secondly, to funnel any assets remaining in the estate upon each member's death to the family's various charitable interests.

Novell with attorneys Jennifer Novell Miller and J. Wayne Allen approached the Stueve family with dire warnings of impending tax liability that would wipe out most of the estate, and thereby deprive them of the ability to meet the above-stated goals, upon the death of one or more of the senior Stueve brothers.  Given the family's long-standing relationship with Novell, which begain when he was in grade school, the Stueves trusted Novell and took his warnings very seriously.  The family looked to Novell for advice on how best to position the estate in order to ensure that their estate planning goals could be met.

 Novell informed the Stueves that the estate was "cash poor" and would not have enough money available to pay that tax burden without liquidation of its various assets for amounts substantially below their fair market value.  Novell warned the Stueves that, as a result of those impending tax burdens, and without an immediate and comprehensive restructuring of the family's estate plan, the estate would not retain sufficient value to meet the family's goals of providing lifetime support for the Stueve children and grandchildren and funding for their considerable charitable interests.

 Novell, Allen and Novell Miller advised the Stueve family that this onerous tax burden could be avoided and the family's estate planning and charitable goals realized through implementation of a complex plan requiring the establishment of various irrevocable trusts and formation of various charitable foundations.

 For assistance with a complex family estate scheme for the Stueve family, yet in actuality was designed to enrich Novell and his family and his associates, Novell enlisted the help of various other individuals and entities, whom he at one point has described as a "team of wealth management specialists."  Novell's "team" at various points in time included, but was not necessarily limited to, attorney Wayne Allen, his daughters, attorney Jennifer Novell Miller and real estate agent Maggie Novell, and his wife, Helen Mouat, a former CFO of a public company.

Novell and his team of conspirators are believed to have taken over $15,000,000 in loans and over $3,000,000 in fees.  The team has formed foundations and funneled money to themselves by making loans to themselves, to Novell‚ ¨!"s daughters and Novell‚ ¨!"s wife and several businesses that Novell had started while charging trustee fees, and also charging hefty management fees and commissions.

In total, Novell is alleged to have converted, looted, and lost over $50,000,000.00 of the Stueve family fortune.