Louie Anderson was a victim of “elder abuse”, his family claim in legal documents.
Louie Anderson was a victim of elder abuse, says his sister
The late ‘Baskets’ star - who died in January this year aged 68 - suffered at the hands of people close to the funnyman, according to a petition filed by his sister Lisa Anderson, who has submitted a motion seeking to disallow them from getting their hands on assets from his estate.
In the documents, she requested the judge bar a late amendment in Louie’s will that added certain friends and family members to the list of people who would get a share of Louie’s cash.
In the files - which were obtained by The Blast website - Lisa named Ahmos Hassan and Abraham Geisness, who were Louie's agent and manager respectively, as the respondents in the case. As well as their job titles, Lisa claimed Abraham was also once the Emmy winner’s “lover”.
Lisa highlighted that Louie’s obesity led to him enduring a heart attack and going through bypass surgery in his final years. In 2013, the ‘Life With Louie’ star was diagnosed with lymphoma and prostate cancer in 2020. Lisa alleges that at this time Louie wanted to have a family reunion in Florida following a show of his. After this event, she said that her brother told her he wanted to travel back to California because he believed that Ahmos was “stealing from him”.
The papers detail how in the next few months, Louie’s health worsened to a point where he could not live independently and that many of their family offered to look after the ‘Coming to America’ star. Lisa revealed that in January earlier this year it became apparent that Louie did not have much time left and she got a strange call from a pal saying that her brother had said: “I don’t want Lisa to come out here and I’ll call her when I want her to come out.”
The documents added added: “Louie spoke with long hesitations between his words and it appeared like he was being coached to say the words he was uttering. This was strange because earlier, Louie had wanted Lisa to come out and lie next to him on a new bed he wanted to purchase. Throughout his life, Louie and (I) had a special, loving bond and called each other every day, sometimes twice a day.”
In the last few days of his life, Lisa claimed that Louie was admitted to hospital and unable to talk, detailing in the filing “eyes were not closed, but he stared blankly ahead,” adding that he did not recognise his two sisters.
On January 12, four days before he died on 16 January, Louie carried out a “first amendment” to his trust, something that Lisa alleges he was “forced” to do on his “deathbed”.
The papers state the will change “reduced the gifts” his two sisters received and describe what Lisa claims she saw, describing a group of people - including Abraham and Ahmos - going into his sick room and heard voices yelling and shouting at Louie telling him to sign some documents,” along with “this is it! You must sign NOW!”
Lisa’s filing requests that the court invalidate the change and make the two men “liable for financial elder abuse,” after she and her sister were removed as “sole beneficiaries” and gave Ahmos and Abrahams 30 per cent of his estate.