The heirs to Bulgari, the Italian luxury fashion house, are locked in a legal battle over a family Trust estimated to be worth $129 million. There were three daughters who inherited the estate when their mother passed away in 2019. Each of the three sisters has already seen a $40 million dollar payout, but two of the sisters are fighting over the way everything was distributed.

That led to a massive financial records review from the jewelry brand and the mother of the three girls, Anna. Because of the significance of the review and the number of documents that have to be dealt with, there are multiple accountants and attorneys working on the case.

More than 15 years of financial transactions are being combed through, and there are more than 3,500 pages of documentation that have to be analyzed. The business was started by Sotiri Bulgari and was originally a humble jewelry brand. It grew into a massive company that became a household name, with a brand that sold in 2011 for $5.2 billion in stock and cash.

The Trust was created for Anna, who was the matriarch of the family. Her death in 2019 is what created the payout to each of her three daughters, but also triggered the fighting that is still plaguing the Trust today. The argument is that the oldest sister is hiding some of the wealth and has not properly paid out what should have been to the other two sisters.

Attorneys for the accused sister say that the allegations don’t have any merit, and everything was distributed correctly between all three of the siblings. The only money withheld from distribution went to cover the costs of handling the estate, along with the taxes.

Time will tell whether anything is found in the accounting records that are being carefully examined. Due to the size of the documents, though, it could take some time to work through all of them and reach a conclusion.

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