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The Star continues to argue the documents should be unsealed so that Toronto police investigators\u2019 missteps can face public scrutiny.<\/p>\n
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The Star continues to argue the documents should be unsealed so that Toronto police investigators\u2019 missteps can face public scrutiny.<\/p>\n Justice Sean Dunphy, the judge who will preside over the case, has dealt with the Sherman family before. Back in 2018, when the Sherman estate was going through probate, he agreed to their request to seal the entire file from public view. His ruling was challenged by the Star, and overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal<\/a>. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld that decision in 2021, reaffirming the rule of court openness<\/a>, a decision that is cited frequently in Canadian courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Dunphy set the table for the new dispute in a ruling that touched on the animosity between the four heirs to the Sherman fortune.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tragic murder of Honey and Barry Sherman in 2017 thrust upon their heirs the responsibility of dealing with an indescribable personal tragedy while also attempting to sort through the complex personal and business issues that managing the resulting estate gave rise to,\u201d Dunphy wrote in a February ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that (the four Sherman children\u2019s) relationship with each other has not been seamlessly harmonious since then is unfortunate, but not at all surprising,\u201d Dunphy said. He told lawyers for the Sherman children and other parties (there are 24 lawyers involved from some of Toronto\u2019s most prestigious law firms) to get prepared for an open court hearing.<\/p>\n It promises to be a rare look behind the curtain of a private company.\u00a0<\/p>\n The family fallout from the billionaire murders<\/p>\n The seeds of this dispute trace back to a time before Barry, 75, and Honey, 70, were found murdered<\/a> next to their underground pool.<\/p>\n Barry, who often told his late friend Jack Kay that he would live to 120, did not do as much estate planning as his friends wanted him to do.<\/p>\n When he died, Barry left a relatively simple will, leaving his fortune to Honey if he died first. No will for Honey has ever surfaced, although she told a close friend shortly before she was murdered that she had just updated her will.<\/p>\n Alexandra and Jonathon Sherman, children of Barry and Honey Sherman<\/p>\n On Honey\u2019s passing, Barry\u2019s will stipulates that their estate was to be equally divided<\/a> between their four children \u2014 Lauren, Jonathon, Alexandra and Kaelen \u2014 when they had reached their 35th birthday. In 2017, Lauren was already over 35, Jonathon was just turning 35, and Alexandra and Kaelen were not yet that age. All four are 35 as of last year. There is no public record of how much they have each received so far.<\/p>\n Sherman was worth billions \u2014 estimates range from $4.7 billion to $10 billion, with some of it offshore in the Bahamas. To oversee his fortune, Sherman appointed four people as trustees or executors to his estate \u2014 his son Jonathon, Jack Kay, money manager Alex Glasenberg (who was and is the CEO of the Sherman trusts) and Bradley Krawczyk, who at the time was married to his daughter Alexandra. Originally, his three daughters were also trustees, but Barry changed that less than a year before his death.<\/p>\n Then the murders. On a wintry December day in 2017, persons unknown strangled Barry and Honey and posed them in their basement swimming pool room in a seated position on the pool deck. Toronto police say they have \u201cmany\u201d persons of interest but are \u201cplaying blind\u201d<\/a> as to where they are in the case.<\/p>\n In emails exchanged between Jonathon and Barry six weeks prior to the murders, Jonathon told his father that he was \u201cthe heir apparent.\u201d To which Barry replied, \u201cYou are my son and an heir to the empire.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonathon Sherman.<\/p>\n Facebook<\/p>\n In the first year following the Sherman murders, Jonathon took charge at Apotex. A year and a day following the murders, he marched his father\u2019s second in command, Jack Kay, out of the Apotex offices. Kay, who died last year, eventually received a multi-million dollar payout to settle what was essentially a wrongful dismissal dispute. Kay had worked for Barry for 35 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the Star has reported, Jonathon told his sisters that he thought it would be best if he handled their financial affairs, and the financial affairs of the Sherman fortune \u2014 the largest portion being Apotex, the generic pharmaceutical company Barry founded in the early 1970s. His sisters fought back against that, sister Alexandra has told the Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between 2018 and 2021, lawyers\u2019 letters flew back and forth between the siblings. Compounding this acrimony was sister Alexandra\u2019s accusation that Jonathon was somehow involved<\/a> in the murders, according to Jonathon in an interview with the Star. Jonathon has denied any involvement in the murders. He has personally added a promise of $25 million to the family\u2019s original $10 million reward to catch the killer, and hired a New York lawyer to look for clues.\u00a0<\/p>\n The simmering financial dispute between the siblings came to a head in 2021. That\u2019s when all four Sherman siblings agreed to create a seven-person board of directors to oversee the business empire Barry left behind, called Sherfam for \u201cSherman Family\u201d. Each Sherman sibling nominated one person for the board; Glasenberg and Krawczyk joined them. (Both men have management positions at Sherfam.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The four siblings also agreed to appoint an independent chair as the seventh member, choosing Barry Reiter, described in court pleadings as \u201can experienced director and recognized corporate governance expert.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s behind the battle over Sherfam<\/p>\n The business affairs of Sherfam proceeded relatively smoothly for a few years. The family sold Apotex to an American company, leaving real estate and business investments for the board to manage. A private company, Sherfam is not required to identify any of its holdings to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n What happened next has been pieced together by the Star from legal actions filed by numerous parties. The lawyers involved declined to give interviews, saying the matter is before the court.<\/p>\n Michael Woollcombe.<\/p>\n SEC company document<\/p>\n In the spring of 2025, what had been a simmering dispute between Jonathon and the pair of Krawczyk and Glasenberg bubbled up. According to pleadings filed by Jonathon, Krawczyk and Glasenberg were trying to kick him out of the largest trust under the umbrella of the seven-person board. A few months later, in July, Jonathon launched his own legal attack, asking a court to remove Krawczyk and Glasenberg from that same trust, citing \u201cbreach of trust\u201d and telling the court that they were not acting in \u201cthe best interests of the beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n Those competing accusations went nowhere in court. But then a new salvo was fired, this time by Woollcombe, Jonathon\u2019s nominee to the seven-person board. In a legal action begun last summer, Woollcombe accused the Sherman trusts of \u201coppressive\u201d conduct against him as a board member, saying that certain actions they had taken prevented him from protecting the Sherman assets. A lawyer himself, Woollcombe describes himself as an \u201cexperienced director, business advisor and corporate lawyer.\u201d He declined to comment to the Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n Woollcombe\u2019s beef, according to court filings, was that a 4-2 majority of the board refused to renew the term of the independent chair, Reiter.<\/p>\n That made Woollcombe concerned that the board would not be able to provide \u201coversight regarding investments of more than $2 billion recently made or agreed to be made at the direction of the board.\u201d What those investments are, the documents don\u2019t say.<\/p>\n Alex Glasenberg, pictured at a 2019 event honouring Barry Sherman\u2019s charity.<\/p>\n Weizmann Institute<\/p>\n Woollcombe said he needs the assistance of the court to help him continue to act as a director (there is no hint in the documents that he is to be removed), and if that doesn\u2019t happen, there will be \u201csignificant harm\u201d to the Sherfam companies. He wants the court to either reinstate Reiter or appoint a new \u201cindependent chair,\u201d according to court filings. Woollcombe also takes issue with the longtime Sherman family law firm, Davies Ward Phillips and Vineberg LLP, continuing to provide advice to the Sherman companies\u2019 board. He says they are in a conflict of interest because the firm is also the lawyer of record for Barry and Honey\u2019s estate. Davies has not responded to the Star\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n In the only personal allegation levelled in Woollcombe\u2019s pleadings, he has accused fellow board member Glasenberg of carrying out a \u201cscorched-earth litigation strategy\u201d against him, including threats of lawsuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Glasenberg\u2019s\u00a0lawyer Chris Paliare told the Star this week that his client denies Woollcombe\u2019s allegations, calling them \u201can extension of Jonathon Sherman\u2019s unfounded allegations made against his fellow trustees\u201d in the suit Jonathon filed last year.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next in the dispute over the Sherman family billions<\/p>\n It will be up to Dunphy to sort this out. Dunphy has issued marching orders to the 24 lawyers who are on record in this amalgamated case. They are to conduct all cross-examinations required, exchange documents, and make sure they are ready for a May 25 hearing in his courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dunphy, with a mind to concerns raised in various pleadings about the secrecy of Sherman company dealings, has told all lawyers to be mindful of the Supreme Court of Canada\u2019s open-court ruling in the Star\u2019s Sherman estate challenge.<\/p>\n In a thoughtful comment in his most recent ruling, Dunphy said that this current case is a \u201csymptom and not a cause of the underlying disputes between the beneficiaries of the estate.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, this December will mark nine years since the Sherman murders. With \u201cmany\u201d persons of interest still in the mix, the lone detective working half-time on the case (with the help of AI) says it is impossible for him to say exactly where he is in the investigation. The detective has told the court that his most recent task is reviewing 14,801 electronic files seized in a search warrant in 2022. The Star has determined these are Barry Sherman\u2019s business records<\/a> seized from the Sherfam offices.<\/p>\n Based on information provided to the court by the detective on how long it takes him to review and categorize each document, the Star estimates he will be finished in just over 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dispute has broken out over who should manage $2 billion of assets left behind by murdered business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-581928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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