The owner of a Manhattan helicopter company is suing his late girlfriend’s estate to get back $300,000 in jewelry he gave her.
Michael Roth, 59, claims that as gal pal Lisa Cortese, 51, was dying of lung cancer, the couple agreed that he would get the jewelry back so he could give it to his daughter, but an estate executor, who would not comment, reneged.Roth’s lawyer declined to comment, and O’Neill did not return a call for comment.
The jewelry included two diamond Rolex watches, 18 rings, a diamond cross and a bangle bracelet with Swarovski crystals, according to the suit filed by the divorced Roth, owner of New York Helicopter Charter.
After Cortese died in September at age 51, Roth said, he then made “repeated requests and demands” to estate executor Susan O’Neill for the return of the jewelry, to no avail, the suit says.
“The estate of Lisa Cortese and Susan O’Neill have refused to return said jewelry to the plaintiff, as its rightful owner,” the suit says.
And last month, O’Neill sent the estate’s beneficiaries a letter saying the jewelry would be sold, with “the proceeds going to the estate for final settlement by the estate.”