Citibank Cheats Grandmaster Benko out of $70,000 As every chess p_layer_ knows, Ruth V. Cardoso, the South American Woman's Chess Champion, was the constant companion of Grandmaster Pal Benko. They were together for thirty years from 1970 until her death in 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Volgl_Cardoso Although Ruth Cardoso spent six months out of every year in New Jersey or New York, she retained a dual residence in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Ruth Cardoso died on February 11, 2000 leaving everything to Grandmaster Benko in her will, including her brokerage accounts at Citibank, 120 Broadway, New York NY. After her death, Grandmaster Benko presented the will to her Citibank account officer, who informed him that he would have get a court order from New York Surrogates Court before the bank could hand over the money. Benko accordingly applied to the New York Surrogates Court for letters of administration. However, the court has an unusual rule that when a person dies without relatives, any person claiming under a will must prove to the satisfaction of the court that there are no living relatives. However, since it is impossible to prove a negative, the applicant must detail the steps that have been taken to locate any possible relatives of the deceased person. Although Ruth Cardoso had been born in Brazil and was a citizen of Brazil, she had been trapped in Nazi Germany during World War II and grew up there. All of her relatives had died in the war except for her mother who had died two years before Ruth died. Accordingly, Benko was required to search for any possible relatives of Ruth Cardoso. In the course of this required search, Benko contacted Wolfgang Roddewig, who was the Honorary Consul of Germany to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, where Ruth Cardoso had died. Roddewig informed Benko that Ruth Cardoso had left no relatives and no significant assets in Brazil when she died. However, upon learning from Benko that there was a proceeding in New York Surrogates Court, Roddewig applied to the courts of Brazil to be appointed executor of her estate in Brazil. This was routinely granted by that court. Roddewig then contacted the Citibank offices in Salvador, Brazil and demanded that the funds that Ruth Cardoso had on deposit in Citibank New York be transferred to him, even though Roddewig had no relationship with Ruth Cardoso. This happened in mid-2003, more than three years after Ruth Cardoso had died. Benko, being completely unaware of what Roddewig was doing in Brazil, went through the procedures required by the New York Surrogates Court, which included publishing a legal notice in the New York Law Journal for four consecutive weeks in November and December 2003. Following the publication of the legal notices, the New York Public Administrators Office demanded that the witnesses to the will be produced to testify that Ruth Cardoso was of sound mind and body when she made out her will. However, the attorney assigned the task by the New York Public Administrator was John Reddy, who then delayed seven months and only issued his report after the Benko Family complained to the court that he was not doing his job. As a result of these delays by John Reddy, it took seven months until July 2004, before he issued his report. The same day that he issued the report, the New York Surrogates Court, Judge Roth, issued letters of administration in favor of Grandmaster Benko. Benko then went to Citibank at 120 Broadway to collect the $70,000 that Ruth Cardoso had left to him, only to be told that Citibank did not have the money any more. They refused to reveal what had happened to the money. However, from other sources, Benko eventually was able to find out that in May 2004, Citibank had given the $70,000 to Wolfgang Roddewig in Brazil. Benko then filed a “Miscellaneous Proceeding” in New York Surrogated to recover the money, arguing that Citibank had made a mistake in giving the money to the wrong person, ignoring the legal notices that had been published in the New York Law Journal in December 2003, months before Citibank had sent the money to Brazil, and also charging Attorney John Reddy as being culpable by delaying seven months when by statute he is required to complete his proceedings within ten days. This case was argued and submitted before the newly elected Surrogates Judge Krestin Booth Glen in May 2005. Judge Glen had just become a judge under controversial circumstances. The New York Bar had rated her as “unqualified”. Nevertheless, she had defeated a “highly qualified” candidate for judge in one of the dirtiest election campaigns for a judicial post in recent memory. After the case was argued and submitted, Judge Glen sat on the case doing nothing for nearly two years until yesterday when she issued an 8-page decision in favor of Citibank and Wolfgang Roddewig. The decision by Judge Glen which is attached is obviously wrong. First and foremost, she fails to mention that a legal notice was published in the New York Law Journal for four consecutive weeks in December 2003. She implies that in May 2004 when Citibank paid the money to Roddewig, a man who was not named in any will and who had no relationship with Ruth Cardoso, they did not know that there was a case pending in New York Surrogate's Court. However, they did know. Not only was the required legal notices published, but Benko repeatedly over the period of four years and visited the Citibank Offices at 120 Broadway and spoke to her account executive, Eric Mark, about the progress of the case. The problem arose when it was not Erik Mark but another branch of Citibank who took the money out of the Cardoso account and gave it to Wolfgang Roddewig. Eric Mark was never notified of this. Another problem with Judge Glen's decision is that it implies that there is a “Brazil Will” that postdates the New Jersey Will. However, no such Brazil Will has ever been produced, nor has any document signed by Ruth Cardoso in Brazil been produced. What Citibank did submit to the court was a document signed by another person stating that there is a will in Brazil. No copy of the alleged will was provided to the court. These are just two of the many things wrong with the decision of Judge Glen. In addition, Judge Glen is asking Judge Roth to vacate her decision appointing Grandmaster Benko as the Administrator of the Cardoso Estate. It seems unlikely that Judge Roth will be willing to do this because both Judge Roth and Grandmaster Benko followed all of the required steps and procedures, and if this decision by Judge Glen is allowed to stand, the procedures that the New York Surrogate's Court has been following for decades will have to be changed. Another question concerns the fact that Wolfgang Roddewig was able to use his position as Honorary Counsel of Germany to Salvador, Brazil to grab $70,000 that did belong to him. Perhaps the Government of Germany can be held responsible for the acts of its errant representative and made to pay back the $70,000 that Wolfgang Roddewig stole. Sam Sloan http://www.samsloan.com/cardoso-glen.pdf