By Carolyn Webb
Flamboyant businessman Geoffrey Edelsten – once known for his lavish lifestyle, which featured sports cars and big spending on women – has left his only child just over $50,000 out of an estate worth just over $1 million, according to probate documents.
Edelsten’s will specifies that he left nothing to two of his ex-wives, Brynne Gordon and Gabi Grecko, having provided for them, he writes, “substantially” and “excessively” during his marriages to them.
Geoffrey Edelsten with his then fiancee Brynne Gordon at Bondi Beach in 2009.Credit: Sasha Woolley
Edelsten also explained why he was leaving his son Matthew Beard $50,000 plus $1000 per year from the will’s date, in 2017, until Edelsten’s death at 78 in June last year.
The will states Edelsten has “limited the benefit” to his son, saying that “during my lifetime, I have provided substantial financial support to him, at the request of his mother, without question and despite having limited contact with him”.
“I made almost all of these payments when I myself was in financial difficulty.”
Edelsten’s will states he has made “no provision” for his former wives Brynne Gordon and Gabriella Rose Curtis — also known as Gabi Grecko — having made “substantial and excessive provision” for them during their marriages.
Geoffrey Edelsten and then fiancee Gabi Grecko at the 2014 Melbourne Cup.Credit: Jesse Marlow
The will makes no mention of Edelsten’s first wife, Leanne Edelsten, who he married in the 1980s, although she is listed among his three former spouses on his death certificate.
The probate on Edelsten’s estate, granted this week in the Supreme Court of Victoria, shows that Edelsten left $300,000 to his friend, Lewi Karalis.
Edelsten also left 10 per cent of his gross estate — limited to $100,000 — to his former school, Melbourne’s Mount Scopus Memorial College, and an equal proportion to Carlton Football Club.
Edelsten, who died in his apartment in Melbourne’s St Kilda Road, was famous for founding a chain of medical clinics and for once owning the Sydney Swans AFL club.
He was known for his lavish lifestyle, which featured sports cars and big spending on women, despite debts of millions of dollars.
In 2015 The Age reported he settled his bankruptcy case, with key creditors agreeing to take a few cents in the dollar to wipe out up to $30 million of accrued debt. The tax office claimed it was owed $14 million.
In the probate documents, the inventory of Edelsten’s assets and liabilities lists no real estate.
It says he had a personal estate or personal assets of $1,089,177. However, of this amount, $998,614 is listed as “Other private loan — Barclays Consulting Group”.
Other assets include $60,000 in a Commonwealth Bank account and personal belongings worth $25,000.
The documents state that Edelsten’s liabilities are $39,731 including legal and commercial bills of over $15,000 and outstanding rent of more than $18,000.
Comment has been sought from Mr Beard, Ms Gordon and Ms Curtis/Grecko.
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