Probate guy treasures job
However, the police also said that evidence in the case had been lost due to the riots in Ukraine in 2014.
Tevelev, who lives in Edgewater, N.J., and was born in St. Petersburg, has said he has been an heir hunter since 1991 when he opened a firm called East Market.
During a 2009 deposition in a separate estate proceeding, he said he considered himself a specialist in foreign documents and locating people overseas.
“Most of my job, I’m going through all local archives, including all Eastern European countries, some Western European countries, Middle East, Israel,” he said.
“I try to find all documentary proof of people who live outside the United States who are somehow related with people who died in the United States.”
In exchange for his services, Tevelev takes a third of whatever inheritance his client collects. He said in his deposition that in one case in Chicago he helped a relative obtain a $500,000 inheritance.
He wasn’t as lucky in the Manhattan Surrogate’s Court case involving the estate of Halina Czechowska, who died with about $280,000 and no apparent heirs. Tevelev represented an alleged niece, who after presenting genealogical records was set to receive Czechowska’s money in 2011.
But before the cash was dispensed, a New York estate lawyer, Glenn Levin, swooped in with compelling evidence of Czechowska’s true heirs. Levin also filed documents alleging that some of the genealogical records that Tevelev had submitted were fake.
A judge eventually ruled in favor of Levin’s clients.
Olson cited the Czechowska estate and two Chicago-based cases as reasons to be suspicious of the genealogical records submitted in the Kramer case.
One of the other cases involves the estate of Wanda Gawel, in which Tevelev said he found two of the decedent’s alleged heirs. In the case, an expert genealogy witness testified that certain Ukrainian marriage documents submitted on behalf of the two alleged heirs were bogus.
After the testimony, the attorneys for Tevelev and his alleged heirs asked to be relieved as counsel, noting that continued representation could lead to ethical violations.
Despite Olson’s report, Tevelev and Hovav may still get a payday in the Kramer case. The lawyers for 35 of the alleged relatives in the case have submitted filings asking a judge to let all the parties reach a settlement — despite the forgery accusations.
The lawyers said that the case has dragged for too long, racking up costly legal fees and other expenses. If a judge lets the settlement talks move forward, one proposed deal would give Hovav $300,000, court filings show. WILLIAM DILIBERTO likens his line of work to a treasure hunt — but he’s searching for long-lost relatives, not gold.
The Valley Stream, L.I., resident is a probate researcher, or what’s known colloquially as an heir hunter.
When someone dies with a sizable amount of money and no known beneficiaries, Diliberto and others like him start searching for an heir who is eligible to collect the cash.
“I love the challenge. It’s like a puzzle,” said Diliberto, 64, who has been tracing genealogies for 22 years. “And I like helping people. And I like changing people’s lives.”
One way heir hunters get work involves prowling around Surrogate’s Court looking for people who died without a will — and without any relatives who are capable of administering the estate.
Those estates are handled by public administrators. Each borough has one.
Public administrators are charged with examining these estates’ assets and giving the Surrogate’s Court an accounting of what they have.
Heir hunters learn of these potentially lucrative estates when public administrators publicly file for letters of administration.
The city’s public administrators handle thousands of estates each year, according to Diliberto. But he said only about 1,200 of these estates hold enough money to make them worth pursuing.
Some of the bigger heir-hunting firms only go after estates that hold at least several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Diliberto says he also goes after more modest estates worth only $100,000.
Once he or an employee from his firm finds a tempting estate, he starts his genealogical research.
Diliberto scrolls through birth, marriage and death records from around the country to figure out the decedent’s family tree.
“I’m a very good detective,” he said. “Most times it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint the family. You have to be clever.”
If records show that the decedent may have had relatives overseas, he’ll reach out to his contacts abroad to track down records in their homeland’s archives.
When Diliberto hones in on possible relatives, he’ll contact them. He said he generally charges them 15% of whatever inheritance they collect, but his firm covers all the research expenses and legal work.
Diliberto said some people are skeptical and think he’s conning them.
Others, he said, think they can prove their relationship to the decedent on their own. “They try and they fail,” Diliberto said. After he’s signed a client, Diliberto and a lawyer he is working with will go to Surrogate’s Court to prove the relationship to the decedent.
At a kinship hearing, Diliberto will testify as an expert witness about the genealogical records proving the family connection.
If he proves the relationship, a judge will eventually sign off on the client getting a part or all of an estate.
“It’s a good story when it’s a happy ending and the right people get some money, not some crook,” Diliberto said.