Belinda stronach where is she now

Under a settlement announced Thursday by The Stronach Group, control of the family fortune is basically split between two factions. Former politician and business executive Belinda Stronach will remain chairwoman and president of The Stronach Group, with full control of its horse racing, gaming, real estate and related assets. Her Austrian-born parents, Frank and Elfriede Stronach, will assume full ownership and control of a stallion and breeding business, all farm operations in North America and all European assets.

The family fortune stems from Frank Stronach, who built the global Magna automotive manufacturing business — where Belinda worked for a time before entering federal politics. Father and daughter issued a joint statement saying they were glad their disagreements had been settled. The cool but conciliatory tone stands in stark contrast to the lawsuit Frank launched in September I love my father and feel sorry for him.

I wish he would become more rational again. Belinda Stronach, top, and lawyer Alon Ossip, below, are being sued by Mr. The family feud includes Mr. Stronach says his daughter and Mr.

Ossip conspired to take the company away from him after he signed over control of the family trust to Ms. Stronach in , when he made a brief stab at electoral politics in Austria. In turning over his super-trustee role to her, he gave her the ultimate authority to name or remove trustees. She added her two children and Mr. Ossip as trustees. His daughter has said the agreement was never dated and was only meant as an emergency backstop to ensure the family kept control of the business while she was undergoing cancer treatment.

When I resigned, I said I could run it again. I would have done it without agreements. Stronach said. Belinda Stronach, right, and her mother, Elfriede, in celebrating the news of Ms.

Stronach clinching the Conservative nomination in the riding of Newmarket-Aurora. He also accuses his daughter of manipulating her mother to sign over her voting shares while he was dabbling in Austrian politics. He showed The Globe what appeared to be a legal letter from his wife to himself, Belinda and Andrew in which she says she would not have signed the document if she had known her daughter would bar her father from running the Stronach Group.

Stronach maintains that he is the wealth creator in the family and that he deserves to be respected for what he has accomplished and allowed to follow his entrepreneurial instincts. Over the past two years, he said, he tried repeatedly to settle the dispute, even seeking out former Ontario chief justice Warren Winkler to act as mediator. Stronach said he's tried over the past two years to mend the relationship with his daughter. He provided The Globe with two copies he made of personal letters he sent his daughter in an effort to resolve the family feud.

I really would like to hug you and welcome you back to the family. The future is in your hands. Call me before it is too late. In another letter dated March 19 of this year — the same day his wife wrote about being tricked by Belinda — he urged his daughter to work with him to devise a structure for the family trust to avoid future squabbles. I would love to work together and manage together with the family. In the interview, he complained that Ms.

Near the entrance stands a street sign for Stronach Boulevard. Stronach, who was known for having a golden touch in the automotive-parts business, has had his fair share of failed business ventures. He has lost money on restaurants, electric bikes, a glossy magazine called Vista and an energy drink named after him. What hurt the most, he said, is when his daughter told him he had lost his business magic and that she would not cede control of the family trust back to him.

You are of a certain age. You are not with it any more. The second was hiring Mr. In court filings and in conversation, Ms. Stronach says Mr. Ossip, who was once a long-time adviser to her father, stepped back from an active role at the family company in at Mr. Ossip said Mr.

Alon has always honoured his obligations and acted in good faith to preserve and grow the Stronach family assets," Mr. The family rewarded Ossip generously, signing over a five per cent interest in key Stronach Group assets outside the family trust.

Earlier this year, after 23 mysterious horse deaths on the Santa Anita track in just a few months, Belinda garnered a wave of positive press for using the crisis as an opportunity to modernize the sport. She proposed a long list of safety and welfare changes to the California Horse Racing Board, almost all of which were accepted. These included prohibiting jockeys from using a whip except in safety-related situations, and adjusting horse medication rules.

He became more obsessed with Adena Farms. During this time of mounting tension, Ossip adds, his relationships with both Belinda and her father were warm and respectful. I n , Frank founded an Austrian political party called Team Stronach. He was always a staunch conservative, but by the time Team Stronach was born, his political opinions had veered just slightly to the left of Attila the Hun. The book is a rambling polemic about the nature of good and evil and the travesty of over-regulation and taxation.

Frank financed Team Stronach with funds from the Stronach Group. As a member of the legislature, Frank had to disclose his financial information. In , he resigned from all corporate positions at the Stronach Group, including his role as super-trustee of the family trust. He appointed Belinda in his stead, giving her ultimate power over all decisions regarding the family coffers. Frank claims he requested them with a view to resuming his position as super-trustee if he ever wished to do so, and that all parties understood that the documents would become effective when he chose to reappoint himself.

Belinda and Ossip deny this was ever the case. Frank lasted just a few months on the backbenches of Austrian politics. I said what had to be said. He returned home in January and resumed work on Adena Farms, buying and selling Stronach Group assets, and expanding the business, which was sucking up vast amounts of money. He says he believed the reappointment documents had taken effect—and accuses Belinda and Ossip of knowingly deluding him into thinking he was still in power.

Instead of telling him he no longer had legal signing authority, Frank contends, they signed off on contracts he executed after the fact to preserve his delusion. He argues that Belinda and Ossip created a Truman Show —like world in which he was the boss, when they knew he had no legal authority and could be banished on a whim. Belinda and Ossip categorically deny participating in any deception. They say he had become increasingly unwilling to admit his passion projects were not financially viable, even when presented with incontrovertible proof.

He and Belinda agreed something radical had to be done. In December , Ossip informed Frank that the Stronach Group was facing significant liquidity issues and he would need to rein in spending on Adena.

In the following weeks, Belinda pulled rank. She informed her father that his attempts to reappoint himself were ineffective. He had no legal right to act in the name of the business, and if he did, she would undermine him.

Belinda was torn. On one side was her father, the man who had given her everything. On the other was her CEO, who had become as indispensable to her as he had once been to Frank.

She attempted a compromise. She suspended Ossip, asking him to go on leave until the situation with Frank had cooled down. He agreed. The family managed to put their differences on hold and spend Christmas together that year.

In January, however, the feud resumed. Frank dated the reappointment documents and sent them to Belinda, informing her he had officially reappointed himself as a trustee. Belinda wrote back saying she would not allow him to take control of the family business.

According to Belinda, Frank breached the terms of the ceasefire almost immediately by making plans that exceeded the budget. Frank says he barely spent a cent. Then she took over Adena.

She shuttered the failing golf club and put the land up for sale at a discount. She alleges that starting in the summer, her father repeatedly cornered her kids, pressuring them to sign documents reappointing him as trustee.

Christmas came and went for the family, this time without Frank. Instead, Belinda spent it with her kids and her mother, who was devastated by the family fallout. In August, Belinda presented a proposal to all family members for the division of family assets. She suggested splitting assets based on the current proportional equity interests in the family trust and the businesses the family members were most involved in.

Belinda and her kids would get the racing and gaming businesses, and Andrew, Selena and Elfriede would get the non-racing and non-gaming assets, including the agriculture group.

In addition, there would be a large cash payout from Belinda to Andrew. The proposal went unanswered by all family members.

The Stronachs remained at a standoff, their guns pointed but no one willing to pull the trigger. And then Belinda sold the company jet—a luxury enjoyed by the entire family but primarily used by Frank. Several people suggested it was the jet sale, more than anything else, that prompted Frank to sue. As the sale was being finalized, Frank filed suit against Ossip, Belinda and her two children, seeking to regain control of the family empire. In the new year, Belinda filed a lengthy statement of defence and counterclaim.

Kathleen Stronach filed for divorce from Andrew, in what friends say was an effort to formalize their long-term separation and secure financial support.

And finally, in February, year-old Selena filed suit against her aunt Belinda. There are now four outstanding claims, and none of the allegations have been proven in court. Belinda lives and works in a Yorkville condo. Frank, who spent decades travelling back and forth from Austria, now spends much of his time in Florida.