Toronto Life
By Leah McLaren
June 17th, 2019
$500-Million Family Feud: Frank Stronach spent decades grooming his daughter, Belinda, to take over his billion-dollar business… Now he wants it back.
Last April, Ontario Superior Court judge Glenn A. Hainey held a routine scheduling hearing in his chambers on University Avenue. It was the latest hearing in the Stronach family trust dispute—a case that’s tearing apart one of Canada’s wealthiest families and galvanizing the best legal minds on Bay Street.
There are questions of inheritance, legacy, fairness, equality and entitlement, as well as practical considerations surrounding tax, asset management, and wealth preservation.
The family is battling for control of the Stronach Group, a complex collection of trusts, corporations and other entities Frank set up after he left Magna International, the multi-billion-dollar auto parts empire he founded in 1957.
After a fruitless mediation last October, Frank filed an excoriating 73-page statement of claim against his daughter Belinda and Alon Ossip, the Stronach Group’s CEO and formerly Frank’s close friend. Frank demanded more than $500 million, alleging his daughter and protégé defrauded him to gain control of the family fortune, which they deny. The document burns with explosive patriarchal rage, concluding with Frank’s demand that Belinda and Ossip be removed as trustees of the family trust.
The members of one of Canada’s wealthiest dynasties are now openly accusing each other of reckless spending, incompetent leadership and outright fraud… in a web of litigation so complex it could keep them bound up in court for years to come.
As the feud drags on, friends and associates of the Stronachs have been pleading for peace negotiations to resume between Frank and Belinda. According to a source close to the case, the idea of family therapy has been floated repeatedly to all parties involved.
