Billionaire’s Son Accuses Nursing Home Executive Of Helping Rob His Aging Dad
by Jemima McEvoy · ForbesAubrey Preston filed new allegations in Tennessee court this week as he fights to become executor of his father's estate. He’s got backing from other executives and siblings as he fights his dad’s young wife.
By Jemima McEvoy, Forbes Staff
The son of Tennessee nursing home billionaire Forrest Preston is accusing one of his father’s executives of aiding in a plot to steal from his elderly dad, according to a petition filed in a Tennessee court on Wednesday. It’s the latest shot fired by Preston’s son, who is fighting for financial oversight of America’s largest privately owned nursing home chain.
Aubrey Preston, 65, whose father Forrest is the founder and CEO of $3 billion (est. revenue) Life Care Centers of America, is asking the Chancery Court of Bradley County in Tennessee to make him the emergency conservator of his 91-year-old father, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $1.3 billion.
Aubrey first filed an explosive complaint on Oct. 29, claiming Forrest is suffering from dementia and that his wife and former caregiver Kim Phuong Nguyen Preston is robbing and abusing his dad. The complaint alleges that Kim, who is 36 years Forrest’s junior, and her siblings have siphoned “tens of millions” of dollars worth of cash and real estate from Forrest and are attempting to take over Life Care.
Kim and Preston have not yet filed any legal response, nor has Kim responded to multiple requests from Forbes for comment.
On Wednesday, Aubrey escalated these claims in a new filing that alleges Lisa Lay, a 30-year-veteran of the company, has been “been complicit with Kim in transferring money and potentially other assets to Kim and her family while Forrest has been disabled.”
Lay has allegedly helped Kim take resources from Century Park, an independent affiliate of Life Care that specializes in assisted and independent living facilities; Life Care caters to more clinical advanced patients. According to a source familiar with the matter, Forrest is believed to be the sole owner of both companies. Per Aubrey’s filing, Forrest and Kim apparently plan to tap Lay, who is vice president of treasury for the 200-location chain, as the conservator instead of Aubrey.
Lay did not respond to a request for comment by Forbes via email by the time of publication. Bill Horton, Forrest’s lawyer, said that the filing “does not support any appointment on any emergency basis” and that Life Care “is sound and carrying on business as usual. “This is an ill-advised filing by a son who was never anointed, for apparent good reasons, as successor to his father for this successful company,” said Horton in a comment from he and Preston. “The son is not an officer, employee or owner of the company owned and operated by Mr. Preston for decades.”
At least three current and former Life Care higher-ups have filed sworn affidavits in support of Aubrey, including current Life Care President Todd Fletcher, Life Care CFO Steve Ziegler and former longtime board member John McMullan. Two of Forrest’s three other biological children – Kathy Gooch and Bryan Preston – also submitted affidavits nominating Aubrey. It is unclear where his third child, Farrell Preston, stands. (Forbes previously tried to reach all three of Aubrey’s siblings, but they either did not respond or declined to comment.)
If he were to become his father’s conservator on a 60-day emergency basis, Aubrey would gain the power to make key decisions and sign legal documents relating to Life Care, according to the terms laid out in the legal document. If the conservatorship extended beyond the emergency period, Aubrey has requested to take over his father’s ownership of the company, as well as decisions over estate planning, his father's health (including his treatment and hospitalization), and even over whether to pursue a divorce or annulment against Kim.
Aubrey worked for his father as Life Care’s director of acquisitions and development for about a decade starting in 1982. During his time at Life Care, Aubrey said in legal documents that he and his father jointly purchased multiple properties, which Aubrey later branched off into his own elderly care business, Denver Health Group.
Kim was originally hired as Kathleen’s caretaker in 2012 after Preston’s then-wife suffered a stroke, according to Wednesday’s filing. Kim allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with Forrest during the time. Gaye Harris, Kathleen’s daughter, said in an affidavit that she saw Kim “grab Forrest’s crotch in a sexually suggestive manner on multiple occasions” while she was serving as a paid caretaker for both Forrest and Kathleen who died in 2017 (she is not Aubrey’s mother); Kim and the elder Preston married 18 months after, according to court documents.
Forrest’s personal assistant, Janice Seay, also submitted an affidavit describing a recent meeting between Forrest and an unnamed Life Care vendor in which she claims Kim “raised her left fist at Forrest, baring her wedding ring, and asked him if he wanted her to knock out his other tooth.” Seay said in the affidavit that Forrest at the time was already missing a tooth and had been for “several months.” Seay alleged that she told Lay about the incident, who instructed her “not to tell anyone else at Life Care,” particularly Fletcher (Life Care’s president) and Ziegler (Life Care’s CFO).
Aubrey’s most recent filing also includes an affidavit from Esmerelda Lee, the chief operating officer and executive vice president of Century Park, an affiliate of Life Care. According to the affidavit from Lee, Forrest owns many of Century Park’s 42 buildings. Lee said in the affidavit that Lay has “made distributions to Forrest and Kim” from bank accounts associated with the buildings owned by Forrest “even when I have told her that making the distributions will leave the business undercapitalized.” She also claims that she asked “Lisa to stop giving Forrest and Kim the money out of these accounts, but despite my requests, Lisa continues to do so and I continue to have to make my requests for cash from Forrest and Kim to meet Century Park’s capital needs, and my requests are not always granted by Kim.”
“The practice of distributing all available cash to Forrest and Kim on a monthly basis without accounting for future capital needs is not good for Century Park and was never the practice when Forrest was sound of mind,” Lee said in her affidavit.
Life Care said in a statement shared by Director of Public Relations Dara Carroll that none of the transactions outlined in Wednesday’s filing violated “any legal or regulatory requirements.” “All financial transactions handled by Life Care and its employees meet all legal and regulatory requirements and were requested and approved by Forrest Preston,” reads the statement.
The Wednesday filing mentions that Forrest named a former longtime board member of Life Care, John McMullan, to be the executor of his last will and testament. (When he was named is not clear). McMullan was on Life Care’s board of directors for 30 years before his retirement in December 2023 and describes Forrest as “one of my best friends” up until that point. Forrest also gave McMullan power of attorney, according to an affidavit from McMullan. However, in the filing, McMullan said that he did not want to serve as Forrest’s conservator or “attorney-in-fact,” and recommended Aubrey instead. Forbes could not reach McMullan for comment.
The son of a pastor, Forrest founded Life Care in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1970. In more than five decades at the helm, he built Life Care into an elderly care juggernaut with more than 200 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and retirement living communities in 27 states. The company gets a significant chunk of its revenue from the government healthcare plans.
A hearing over the emergency conservatorship petition will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 20.