Power: It’s Not Easy Being the Greens

While Marla was growing closer to DiDio, Firstrust seemed to be backing away from Legacy. In his letter of September 13, 2004, Richard wrote to Marla’s attorney, Raoul Felder, that he would personally fund Legacy under the conditions that the venture “assumes absolutely no involvement with Firstrust bank or its related entities and nonsolicitation of any Firstrust customers for any banking services.”

But it wasn’t clear to at least one close observer where Firstrust ended and Legacy began. Indeed, Marla seemed to make liberal use of certain Firstrust resources and staff. Marla claims in court that family patriarch and Firstrust chairman Daniel Green sat in on meetings with Legacy’s advisers and interviews with prospective Legacy hires. The Legacy team began meeting with rival banks, according to Richard’s lawsuit. DiDio and his associate Lora Epstein discussed Legacy matters on Firstrust e-mail accounts and BlackBerries.

Meanwhile, in divorce court, things were not going well. In his letter to Felder, Richard had requested an “acceptable” settlement agreement, but as usually happens in these cases, acceptable was in the eyes of the beholder. Marla claimed in a June 2005 court hearing that Richard’s attorney had thrown out the number $11 million, from which Legacy’s $2.5 million would be deducted. (It’s difficult to say how much Richard is worth, but in 2002, Betsy Green, the estranged wife of Richard’s brother Arlin, alleged that the Green family owned and controlled an investment vehicle containing $237 million in assets — so that’s a start.)

 Marla Green was in no hurry to settle.