It is an empire created piece by piece, but achieving expansively throughout the Baltimore area and over and above — via true estate that contains a downtown landmark and a renowned horse farm, to an intense law organization that received billions of dollars for workers harmed by asbestos and smokers sickened by tobacco, and of training course, wrapping in the Orioles, whose glories and struggles determine their very pleased and scrappy hometown.
But now, in the twilight of his everyday living, Peter G. Angelos’ huge portfolio of assets could be damaged up amid a spouse and children feud above who will command them.
In accordance to a just lately submitted lawsuit, his wife needs to offer the workforce and his more mature son wishes to “dismantle or dissolve” his regulation agency, the signature holdings that propelled the son of a Highlandtown tavern owner into just one the most well known and impressive figures in the state.
The go well with, filed June 9 by his young son, Louis F. Angelos, 52, information a family feud that allegedly has been brewing considering the fact that the overall health of the household patriarch commenced declining and he could no longer regulate his firms. Peter Angelos’ 93rd birthday is on the Fourth of July.
Louis Angelos sued in Baltimore County Circuit Courtroom, boasting his brother John P. Angelos, 55, has sought to seize regulate of their father’s belongings, intimidating and perplexing their mother, Ga Kousouris Angelos, into acquiescence. The 80-calendar year-aged matriarch issued a assertion in reaction to the fit, even so, expressing she by itself has the authority to control the family members property and completely supports John.
Whether any asset is offered continues to be to be seen and, in truth, family holdings normally don’t continue to be intact as a result of the generations for any variety of reasons. Disputes these types of as the one splitting the Angelos spouse and children are so familiar, they’ve influenced almost everything from Shakespeare’s “King Lear” to HBO’s “Succession.”
The Angelos empire has experienced but a person emperor, observers say, creating it difficult to imagine the passing down of the crown.
“With Peter’s identity, staying this sort of a dominant chief, the Angelos regulation business was just him. He ran the Orioles the identical way,” reported Aris Melissaratos, a former Maryland secretary of business and economic advancement who now is vice president for leadership development for St. John Homes.
“He was kind of dominant in all places, and dominant above his two sons,” he stated. “For choices, it was always, ‘You have to see Mr. Angelos.’”
The Regulation Workplaces of Peter Angelos, as the much-advertised company is called, used a fluctuating stable of lawyers in excess of the many years — but none were being produced partners, while it’s at the moment managed by Louis Angelos. And though Peter Angelos organized a group of consumers to invest in the Orioles in 1993, which includes the late novelist Tom Clancy and tennis-star-turned-broadcaster Pam Shriver, Angelos was the major trader and managing companion.
As his well being faltered, he granted electric power of legal professional to his spouse “to act in my position in all matters,” according to a document signed Oct. 31, 2017, and which was bundled in the submitting of Louis Angelos’ lawsuit.
Must she not be in a position to act in that potential, the document went on to say, he specified his sons “acting jointly or separately” to exchange her as his “attorney-in-point.” Angelos also designed a have faith in for his holdings, and on Aug. 9, 2019, he discontinued his job as its trustee while his spouse and two sons took about as co-trustees.
In October 2020, Ga Angelos put her husband’s curiosity in the Orioles into his rely on, in accordance to the lawsuit.
A legal and downtown powerhouse
Peter Angelos past went to his legislation office, in the gleaming One Charles Heart downtown, in February 2018. Angelos acquired the making, created by modernist huge Ludwig Mies van der Rowe, in 1996 for $6 million.
The law business specializes in own injuries conditions, most notably diseases and fatalities by steel and shipyard staff from inhaling asbestos. The organization also taken care of the state’s litigation from the tobacco market to recover expenses relevant to caring for smokers.
Attorneys in town say the legislation business is more compact than through the peak of the asbestos litigation and, according to Louis Angelos’ fit, John Angelos regarded it unsustainable and believed it necessary to be dissolved or spun off. Louis Angelos refused, the accommodate mentioned, noting their father considered his business his “most important achievement” and his job with the Orioles “strictly secondary.”
From a working-class track record — his dad and mom immigrated from Greece, and he went to legislation school at evening — he rose in position and prosperity. He served as a Town Council member and ran unsuccessfully for mayor, and grew to become a main philanthropic and Democratic political donor. He has provided tens of millions to his alma mater, the College of Baltimore Legislation College, in which a creating bears the names of his moms and dads, John and Frances Angelos.
Angelos has owned different downtown structures about the yrs, and sought to safeguard the workplace-leasing market from moving to other elements of city. He sued to halt development designs outside the central company district, these as the westside Superblock venture and the Point out Middle revamp.
Louis Angelos’ lawsuit accuses his brother of transferring what he estimates as extra than $90 million of their father’s actual estate holdings into an LLC owned by a believe in that John Angelos mainly controls.
The checklist includes town and county homes, which includes 925 Jap Ave. in Minimal Italy, which housed Boccaccio Restaurant until eventually shortly following its owner’s loss of life in 2008. Peter Angelos had been a typical, hosting anyone from O’s pitching fantastic Jim Palmer, who stated the staff proprietor was trying to woo him as manager, to then-Gov. Martin O’Malley, in a claimed try to warm a chilly romance with the Democrat.
Angelos beforehand purchased the famous Maison Marconi on West Saratoga Street, saying he would relocate the restaurant to just one of his Charles Road qualities. Alternatively, he closed it five yrs afterwards and sold the setting up in 2019.
Angelos’ business pursuits tend to overlap. He owned thoroughbred horses prior to the Orioles, racing them underneath the identify Marathon Farm. In 1998, he purchased a 237-acre horse farm in Baltimore County for $2.6 million. He has named horses soon after then-O’s supervisor Buck Showalter and ideal fielder Nick Markakis.
The benefit of Peter Angelos’ fortune is unclear, even though Melissaratos estimates it is in surplus of $2 billion. The Orioles are valued by Forbes at $1.375 billion.
The next era
For numerous a relatives, experts say, the changeover from founder to the following era can be fraught.
“You’re not just working with enterprise problems. You are dealing with family members troubles, as well,” stated Maurice Offit, a Baltimore-based mostly attorney who specializes in estate planning, but famous he has no independent knowledge of the Angelos family’s problem. “Many moments it’s difficult.”
And when the crown jewel of the relatives enterprise is significantly high-profile, with a lot of the city invested in its every go, the difficulties are that a lot higher, Melissaratos explained.
“The O’s and Baltimore are synonymous,” he said.
“Succession organizing is always hard to attain, specially in a family members with these kinds of a noticeable asset like the Orioles,” Melissaratos mentioned.
John A. Pica Jr., a previous Democratic condition legislator, agreed. Pica, who formerly worked for the Angelos legislation firm and now is a lobbyist, said he hopes the family settles its dissimilarities.
“Mr. Angelos crafted an empire by hard function. He saved the Orioles in Baltimore,” he reported. “It’s incredibly unfortunate to see a battle like this heading on, but I’m positive it will all work out.”
In his lawsuit, Louis Angelos explained his father introduced each sons into the Orioles functions setting up all-around 1995, two years after he and other buyers acquired the group for $173 million, then the most ever compensated for a sports crew.
Frank Wren, the Orioles typical manager for a solitary year, 1999, said the brothers had been emotion their way in a even now-unfamiliar field for them, and it was not generally very clear what their part was.
“Both of the kids had been new to the small business, making an attempt to determine out how to guide,” he said. “They ended up figuring out what was their spot, where they definitely suit in, ‘What will Father let us do?’ ‘Will the job have meat to it — or is it just a title and Dad’s working all the things?’”
Wren explained Louis Angelos “had a good feel for the game” and “was a lot more intrigued in baseball stuff” than his brother at the time.
Peter Angelos fired Wren at the finish of the year, in section for the reason that he refused to keep a aircraft for a West Coastline highway trip for star Cal Ripken Jr., who was caught in website traffic.
“Peter’s incredibly demanding. I really don't feel saying that will take any individual by surprise,” Wren explained. “He has a view of what should really be carried out, and how.”
The lawsuit mentioned the brothers to begin with worked with each other collaboratively, but a “rift” developed amongst John Angelos and his father above this sort of issues as wherever the group ought to find its spring teaching facility. The acrimony led to John Angelos allegedly strolling absent from the Orioles for extended durations of time, all through which Louis Angelos’ purpose on the team grew, the lawsuit claimed.
John Angelos returned to the staff in 2017 at his father’s ask for, in accordance to the lawsuit, and began hoping to seize handle, unilaterally getting rid of those loyal to Peter Angelos and installing his individual individuals. He now holds the title of chairman and CEO of the team.
Louis Angelos said in his suit that his brother labored to consolidate his control more than the workforce and could market it or move it to Tennessee, the place he life in Nashville. John Angelos has denied he would move the staff, and in the lawsuit, he is accused of stalling and thwarting his mother’s motivation for a sale.
The turmoil has many followers watching not just what’s happening on the area, in which a yearslong rebuilding course of action seems to be bearing some fruit in remarkable young gamers, but off it as well.
“It’s unfortunate this rift arrives as the group is about to convert all-around,” Melissaratos explained.
“It’s received to be solved peacefully, not by obtaining spouse and children laundry aired in general public,” he explained. “Someone requires to come in and tranquil items down. I would offer to do it.”
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