Rupert Murdoch Loses Bid to Give His Empire to Son Lachlan

Rupert Murdoch lost his initial bid to amend his family trust to cede power over his vast media empire to his eldest son Lachlan, according to The New York Times.

Washoe County Probate Commissioner Edmund Gorman wrote that both Murdochs acted in “bad faith” to strip control over the trust from three of Rupert Murdoch’s other children—James, Elisabeth, and Prudence.

He also blasted the pair’s “carefully crafted charade” as an attempt to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles.”

Rupert Murdoch had testified that the amended trust would have benefited all of his children, as he believed Lachlan’s leadership would have maintained their conservative—and therefore commercial—values.

A lawyer for Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence “welcomed” the decision and said they “hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.”

Gorman wrote in a 96-page ruling that the effort “was an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch’s favor after Rupert Murdoch’s passing so that his succession would be immutable,” according to the Times. The Murdoch family’s net worth is currently $22.5 billion, according to Forbes, representing control of companies such as Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

“The play might have worked; but an evidentiary hearing, like a showdown in a game of poker, is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion, all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up,” he continued. “The court, after considering the facts of this case in the light of the law, sees the cards for what they are and concludes this raw deal will not, over the signature of this probate commissioner, prevail.”

The trust came into place after Murdoch’s divorce from his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann. As part of the settlement, Murdoch granted equal voting rights to the four children and cemented it as part of an irrevocable trust. All six of Murdoch’s children, including two children with ex-wife Wendi Deng, have equal financial stakes, though only his eldest four were given voting rights.

The ruling revealed various details of the family’s squabbling, which culminated this year in a two-week trial in Reno. Gorman wrote that the family began preparing a public-relations strategy for Murdoch’s death after Succession’s series finale episode where patriarch Logan Roy dies, sending the Roy empire into chaos. It prompted Elisabeth’s trust representative to draft a “Succession memo” that would avoid a repeat of the show’s plot line, according to the Times.

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, fearing the younger trio would oust Lachlan from his role as the companies’ executive steward and eradicate their conservative values, later worked to develop “Project Family Harmony” to amend the trust to strip the three younger siblings of their voting power after Rupert’s death. They revealed their plan at a special meeting for the trust late last year, according to the Times, prompting James, Elisabeth, and Prudence to push back in court.

They argued to Gorman that they “disavowed any plan to oust their brother,” and the commissioner found the siblings hadn’t “shared any singleness of purpose in changing the management of Fox News” or any other Murdoch company, according to the Times.

Gorman did not spare words for the elder Murdochs’ trust representatives, either, including former Attorney General Bill Barr. He claimed the representatives “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive” in executing Rupert and Lachlan’s plans. He also chastised a newer trust representative, claiming their limited knowledge of the Murdochs stemmed mostly from “Google searches and watching YouTube videos about the Murdochs (or the fictional family in the show ‘Succession’).”

The case now moves to a district judge, who can either approve or reject Gorman’s recommended resolution. The Murdochs, however, could still appeal the case.