Liberace Estate’s Executor Defends Switzerland Trip

The executor of Liberace’s estate said he made a trip to Switzerland a year ago to check out the late entertainer’s Swiss bank account, calling the trip “a very sensitive mission.”

Joel Strote said he wanted to check the files in Zurich personally because he was concerned “that the income may not have been reported.”

Strote did not expand on the statement. His testimony continued Tuesday afternoon.

The testimony came in the second day of Nevada district court hearings on a lawsuit by five Liberace associates against Strote. The Los Angeles attorney became executor of the Liberace estate in a will signed 13 days before the entertainer’s death Feb. 5, 1987.

“I wanted to make sure Mr. Liberace’s privacy was protected,” Strote said, explaining why he made the trip to Swiss Bank Corp.’s Zurich headquarters rather than withdrawing the balance from the bank’s branch in Los Angeles.

Strote said he did not tell Seymour Heller, Liberace’s long-time manager, about the trip to Zurich. The Swiss account was in the name of Liberace and Heller, Strote said.

Heller is one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Strote. The suit seeks to remove Strote as executor of the estate and head of the Liberace Foundation.

Attorneys for the five said in opening arguments Monday that Strote spent more than $6,000 from the estate to recover about $4,000 in the Swiss account.

Strote testified Tuesday that he learned of the Swiss account when he opened one of Liberace’s bank boxes in Palm Springs. He said he called Heller, who told him the account had been in existence for several years. Strote said Heller told him that most of the money had been brought to the United States in 1986.

Strote said he understood that the account may have dated back to the 1950s.

“I thought it would be more appropriate for me to go there (Zurich) than to have the records brought to the U.S.,” Strote testified.

He said he did not tell Heller about the trip because “this was a very sensitive mission. I wanted to know the history of the account.”

Heller has estimated Liberace’s estate at $20 million.

Plaintiffs in the case are Heller; Liberace’s Palm Springs housekeeper, Dorothy McMahon; Cary James, a companion of Liberace for six years before his death; Angie Liberace, the only living sibling of the family, and Gladys Luckie, the housekeeper at Liberace’s Las Vegas home.