Harriman Settles With Estate’s Heirs

Pamela Harriman has reached a settlement with her late husband’s heirs, who had accused the U.S. ambassador to France of squandering $30 million of their inheritance, her attorney said Friday.

A one-page statement from lawyer Roy L. Reardon said that Mrs. Harriman and the children and grandchildren of the late New York Gov. Averell Harriman had resolved all lawsuits among them “through a mutual redistribution of family assets to correct inequities” resulting from losses on bad investments.

Harriman, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union, died in 1986 at age 94, leaving a fortune of more than $66 million to his wife and heirs in a series of trusts, over which she, as a trustee, had a great deal of control.

Last year, the heirs sued, claiming Mrs. Harriman and her financial advisers squandered $30 million of her late husband’s fortune on bad investments.

Mrs. Harriman, 75, had sought to make several others responsible for the bad investments, including former counsels Clark Clifford and Paul Warnke.

The statement said the settlement ends litigation against Mrs. Harriman only and does not include other defendants. Mrs. Harriman and the heirs will jointly pursue certain claims made against other parties, the statement said.

Mrs. Harriman backed out of a tentative $20 million settlement with her late husband’s heirs in June. The deal fell apart when co-defendants Clifford and Warnke refused to pay an additional $3 million.

Clifford is a former secretary of defense and Warnake is a former head of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Specific terms of the latest settlement were confidential.