A wealthy Park Avenue woman raided her elderly mother’s $160 million trust to make “extravagant” credit card purchases for herself and her daughter — and chopped her brother’s payout in their mother’s will by more than $1 million, the brother claims in a new federal lawsuit.
Abigail Merrill took over as trustee of her mom Julia’s $160 million fortune in 2010 and immediately “abused her position” by using $320,000 from the trust to pay off American Express bills for herself and her daughter Sammi Katz, according to Manhattan federal court papers.
Katz has played roles in small theater productions.
Samuel Merrill, who lives in Beverly Hills, also accuses his sister of getting their then-92-year-old mom to reduce his inheritance from $1.9 million to $750,000.
That’s a cut of $1.15 million, which is how much he’s suing for — plus punitive damages of $97 million, the suit states.
Abigail even e-mailed a lawyer saying her mom was “thrilled’’ to cut Samuel’s payout.
Neither Abigail nor Sammi replied to requests for comment.