This week, a high-profile succession battle began in a court in Reno, Nevada, USA, between the 93-year-old media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his three children. This lawsuit has attracted much attention not only because it involves the Murdoch family's $15 billion fortune, but also

This week, a high-profile succession battle started in a court in Reno, Nevada, USA. The protagonists are the 93-year-old media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his three children.

This lawsuit has attracted much attention not only because it involves the Murdoch family's 15 billion US dollars in property, but also because it is a battle for the head of the Murdoch media empire. The final result is likely to affect The future orientation of global English-language media opinion.

Safe-like family trust

It is understood that this lawsuit is centered around the control of the Murdoch family trust fund.

Family trust is a property management method in which the trustee accepts the entrustment of an individual or family to manage and dispose of family property on their behalf. To put it simply, it is like a legally binding, earmarked safe.

Murdoch has 6 children with his three ex-wives Patricia, Anna and Wendi Deng. In 1999, when Murdoch divorced Anna and planned to marry Wendi Deng, Anna "give up half of her property" as a condition, and the three parties agreed to establish a family trust fund, giving equal voting rights to the four adult children at the time.

Murdoch took a group photo with his eldest son Lachlan (left) and second son James (right) in London (picture source: Global Network)

It is worth mentioning that Murdoch paid about After paying a price of US$1.7 billion, almost all of his assets were put into three family trusts. This also means that Murdoch’s assets no longer belong to him and are not personal property, so no matter who he marries , are not considered joint property of husband and wife. After establishing a family trust, Murdoch also successfully isolated most of his assets during his divorce from Wendi Deng.

Thanks to this "safe", no matter what happens next in Murdoch's love life, the right to distribute his huge property will still be in his hands.

However, even if there is a trust fund, there has been a lot of quarrels within the Murdoch family over the distribution of property.

In 2006, Wendi Deng wanted to fight for the voting rights of the family trust fund for her two daughters, but was blocked by several other children. In order to calm the dispute, Murdoch decided to let his two youngest daughters own 8.7% of the shares of News Corporation and Fox Company, but they did not have voting rights in the family trust fund and could not participate in business decisions and group operations.

Therefore, this time, the "inheritance war" was about to break out, but his two young daughters were not involved.

From "dust settled" to "rekindled war"

According to reports, the Murdoch family trust has a total of 8 votes, 4 of which are controlled by Murdoch himself, and the remaining 3 votes are controlled by 4 of his previous two marriages. Children - the eldest daughter Prudence by Patricia, the second daughter Elizabeth by Anna, the eldest son Lachlan and the youngest son James.

In September last year, Murdoch announced his resignation, handing over the "media empire" he founded and headed by Fox News Channel to his eldest son Lachlan.

Just when the outside world thought that "the dust has settled," the Murdoch family's "succession war" that has lasted for decades has rekindled not long ago: This time, Murdoch wants to take back his second son James and his eldest daughter Prue. Dens and his second daughter Elizabeth enjoy voting rights to maintain the stability of the family business. This move completely angered his children.

Some analysts believe that Murdoch’s move is largely related to the political opinions and ideas of his children. As time went by, he discovered that only his eldest son, Lachlan, had "similar views" to him. The other three children don't seem to be too keen on Murdoch's conservative line. The second son, James, is openly critical of Fox News's stance.

According to the words of American news commentator David Falconfrick, "Murdoch believes that he has created a powerful conservative media empire according to his own will, with influence in major English-speaking countries, and hopes to establish his own After his death, his media properties continued on this path, and Lachlan fully embraced his philosophy and showed a willingness to act on his will."

However, Murdoch had not previously wanted to go to court. .He tried to communicate with his two daughters and second son to persuade them to give up control of the family business to Lachlan, but the children refused.

In order to clear the "obstacles" for Lachlan, Murdoch finally decided to go to court with the other three children, seeking to "concentrate decision-making power in the hands of Lachlan alone and give him permanent and exclusive control." This also led to Elizabeth and James not showing up at the wedding of Murdoch and his fifth wife Zhukova in June this year, unwilling to maintain the superficial peace.

Both parties each hired a "team of lawyers"

The case was held in the U.S. District Court of Nevada on September 16, local time. It is understood that the reason why the "war" was chosen in Nevada is because the state's judicial authorities are "the best in the United States" in terms of confidentiality in litigation cases involving asset protection, and most details of the case will not be disclosed to the public.

Murdoch and his wife appeared in court (Photo source: Xinmin Evening News)

According to reports, in order to win the lawsuit, both parties each hired a "team of lawyers."

Among them, Murdoch's three children hired Bernstein, a partner at Cosmo Law Firm. As a top law firm with a long history, Cosmopolitan ranks first among the top 100 law firms in the United States, and Bernstein is an expert in commercial dispute cases.

Murdoch hired Adam Streisand, who has represented Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and many other celebrities in their property cases. In addition, Murdoch even specially invited former US Attorney General Barr to redraft the family trust charter for him.

analysts said that if Murdoch wins this battle, Lachlan will take over News Corporation and Fox and continue to promote the conservative agenda; if the three children win, once Murdoch passes away, James is likely to unite the two If the sisters ignore Lachlan, the traditional right-wing media is likely to switch to the left. The

report mentioned that there are few news events in the world that have received such long-term and intensive attention like the Murdoch family's "succession battle". On the one hand, it is due to the huge political influence of News Corporation itself, and on the other hand It's also because this plot trend is really "irresistible".

Jimu News integrates Xinmin Evening News, Global Times, Global Network, Global People Network, Shangguan News, Jiemian News, Reference News Network, Xinhua News Agency, Financial Associated Press, etc.

(Source: Jimu News)

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