The tycoon Rupert Murdoch, 93, has lost for now the court battle to modify his family trust in favor of his eldest son, Lachlan, and ensure the future of one of the most influential media empires in United States politics, according to reports The New York Times.
In a trial in Reno, Nevada, the Murdoch patriarch had requested to change the terms of his trust to ensure that after his death the media companies were transferred to his eldest son, Lachlan, removing his three siblings, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, from power.
Nevada Probate Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. had determined that the American magnate could modify the trust if he demonstrated that he was acting in good faith and for the exclusive benefit of his heirs.
In his ruling, Gorman concluded that Murdoch and the eldest son had acted in “bad faith” in his effort to modify the irrevocable trust, according to information cited by the newspaper.
In the 96-page decision, the commissioner said the tycoon’s request to restructure the trust is a “carefully crafted sham” to “permanently consolidate Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” within the empire.
He also stressed that both the father and his eldest son had not considered “the impacts that such control would have on the companies or beneficiaries” of the family trust.
Adam Streisand, Murdoch and Lachlan’s lawyer, said Monday that His clients were disappointed with the ruling and they intended to appeal, according to the New York newspaper.
The trust the patriarch is trying to change was created in the late 1990s primarily to give equal control over his businesses to his four oldest children.
Murdoch intends to block any interference from the three brothers, who are more politically moderate, in the family’s vast collection of newspapers and television, in an attempt to preserve the conservative editorial trend established by his father, and which Lachlan wants to continue, according to the lawsuit.
Lachlan Murdoch has presided since last fall, after the abandonment of his father, of News Corporation and Fox News, one of the most powerful and influential media conglomerates in the United States.
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