Dog inherits $12m trust fund

American woman Leona Helmsley has left her beloved Maltese dog "Trouble" a $12m (€8.8m) trust fund, according to her will, which was made public in New York surrogate court, according to published reports.

Trouble will continue to live the royal life in the US, and then be buried alongside owner in a mausoleum.

Two of Helmsley’s grandchildren received nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire’s estate.

She did leave millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer – so long as they visit their father’s grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5m (€3.67m) she left for each.

But no one made out better than Trouble, who once appeared in ads for the Helmsley Hotels, and lived up to her name by biting a housekeeper.

“I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum,” Helmsley wrote in her will.

The mausoleum, she ordered, must be “washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year”.

She left behind $3m for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley, and where the pair have a view of the New York skyline.

She also left her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea, $100,000 (€73,500).

Everything else, including cash from sales of the Helmsley residences and belongings, reported to be worth billions, she ordered to be sold and the money given to the Leona and Harry Helmsley Charitable Trust, the New York Post reported.

“I will have no comment concerning Mrs. Helmsley’s will,” said her long-time spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, in the Post.

Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. She became known as a symbol of 1980s greed and earned her famous moniker The Queen of Mean after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion. One employee had quoted her as snarling: “Only the little people pay taxes.”