In the end, it wasn’t a wonderful life for a Manhattan Christmas-ceramics mogul whose family is now sparring with his much younger husband over his $54 million fortune.
A frail Edward Bazinet — who had made as much as $100 million peddling Snow Babies, Dickens Villages and other popular miniatures depicting idyllic holiday scenes — spent his final months being shuttled across the country in a bitter tug-of-war between his sister and spouse, who accuse each other of siphoning off Bazinet’s riches for themselves.
Just 10 months before his death in November 2017, Bazinet, 73, married real-estate broker Brett Jordan — 43 years his junior — in a “secret” civil ceremony, according to Manhattan Surrogate Court papers.
Jordan says Bazinet approached him on the street in 2014 and asked for a date. They bonded over art and Broadway.
Bazinet’s family claims Jordan “targeted” the older man. Bazinet had been in the press because his $24 million, 19-room Warren Street penthouse had been damaged on 9/11, then had its views blocked by construction, and was languishing on the market. Jordan became his broker and “within months of meeting him, had moved in with Ed,” according to court papers filed by Bazinet’s sister, Maureen Beck.
Jordan says he supported Bazinet through treatment for alcoholism and remained dedicated as the mogul’s health began to fail.
But Bazinet’s sister alleges he changed after meeting Jordan.
Jordan oversaw a quick succession of uncharacteristic, high-priced real-estate deals for Bazinet as they hopped from apartment to apartment, collecting commissions until they landed at a $15 million Tribeca condo.
Bazinet became increasingly isolated from his family and suddenly “transformed” his decades-old estate plan, shifting the bulk of his assets from his namesake foundation to Jordan, his sister charges.
Bazinet, whose company is called Department 56, initially left $500,000 to Jordan before doubling the bequest — then later expanded Jordan’s share of the will to include money, art and property.
“I’m worried,” Beck wrote to Bazinet in November 2016. “I hope he is willing to live with you without owning your new apartment. Setting up a situation where he benefits upon your death with such a large gift seems unwise on a number of levels.”
Jordan — who could inherit $32 million if the changes to Bazinet’s will are allowed to stand — neglected Bazinet, may have withheld his medications, diverted the businessman’s funds to his own relatives and interacted “with Ed in a controlling manner which far more resembled abuse,” Beck alleges in court papers.
Jordan says that when Bazinet became ill in September 2017, Jordan visited daily at NYU Langone Medical Center, until Beck transferred him to a Minneapolis hospital “in the middle of the night.”
A nearly incapacitated Bazinet then allegedly signed papers revoking the changes to his will, including his bequests to Jordan — who moved Bazinet back to New York just a month before his death, court papers show.
“I cared for him because he was my husband and I loved him,” Jordan claimed in court papers.