James Brown’s will contested by five of his children

FIVE of James Brown’s children say their late father’s will should be invalidated because his former advisers used undue influence to get him to create charitable trusts that the advisers would profit from, according to court documents.

The children were largely left out of the financial portion of the will, which leaves the bulk of the soul singer’s money to trusts set up to educate his grandchildren and needy children. Atlanta attorney Louis Levenson said the children discovered earlier wills drafted by their father that cast doubt on whether he wanted to leave his estate to charity.

“There was sporadic indication that Mr Brown intended to benefit some charities, but the circumstances surrounding the making of these documents have always been clouded in mystery,” said Mr Levenson.

Five of Brown’s children are claiming Brown’s advisers Buddy Dallas, Alford Bradley and David Cannon convinced him to create the trusts so they would profit from managing the two charities.

“No one told James Brown what to do,” Mr Dallas said, adding that if he were going to use his influence to benefit himself, “I would have just influenced him into giving me something.”

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 of heart failure. He was 73.