Gabi Greko discusses late husband Geoffrey Edelsten’s estate
The widow of flashy businessman, Geoffrey Edelsten, said the “vision that Geoffrey was this rich guy”, was a falsehood. “It wasn’t like that,” Gabi Grecko told A Current Affair from her home in New York.
In her first television interview since Mr Edelsten’s passing in June, Ms Grecko covered their marriage, Mr Edelsten’s estate and what she thinks of Byrnne Edelsten, her husband’s ex-wife.
“I lived the lifestyle for, probably, a month,” Grecko explains.
“When I arrived in Australia (in 2014) he had all his cars, he had the penthouse. But then I went home for a trip to New York, and I came back, and all the cars were gone”.
Mr Edelsten’s exact wealth is a hotly disputed figure. In 2011, Mr Edelsten claimed that he had made more than $100 million in the sale of his Allied Medical Group.
In years since the Allied sale, Edelsten claimed to have spent $27 million investing in a US fashion label, and a casino in the Caribbean.
Edelsten had also purchased a $4.5 million Apartment at the Palazzo Versace hotel, a $2.9million penthouse in Melbourne, and 14 luxury cars including $1 million Rolls-Royce, and two Ferraris.
But in 2014, Mr Edelsten, filed for bankruptcy in the United States.
Ms Grecko doubts that much of that money is left.
“It’s like comedy, when people talk about me inheriting money. I’m like, ‘no. More like I’m inheriting millions of dollars of debt’,” she said.
Grecko claims that she was still legally married to Mr Edelsten at the time of his death but that she will not be contesting Mr Edelsten’s estate.
Some speculate that other figures in Mr Edelsten’s life may contest the will, with potential for claims by family members such as his son, or his ex-wife Brynne.
“(Brynne) acts like a loser, honestly. Who wants to keep a deceased man’s name that has remarried? I mean you’ve got to be a pretty big loser,” Grecko said. But that doesn’t mean Brynne can’t make a claim.
“The executor gets a death certificate and then they can make an application to the court to prove they have the last will and that they can act on it without fear or ramifications,” Tracey Ryan from Shine Lawyers explained.
“Anyone who wants to contest that will, has six months to do so under the family provisions act.”
A Current Affair approached the executor of Mr Edelsten’s will, Lindsay Hosking, but he declined to comment.
