Jane Goldman Finds Ally In Real Estate “Succession” Drama

The Goldman family saga, never short on intrigue, has taken a dramatic new twist.

Attorneys for Jane Goldman have been communicating with Natalia Vostrikova — the Russian mistress who is maneuvering to cut Jane’s nephew, Steven Gurney-Goldman, out of his father’s will.

Why is that significant? Last year Steven won a seat at a key entity in the Goldman family business that gives him considerable negotiating power against his aunt in their power struggle over the family’s multi-billion dollar real estate empire.

But he only holds that position so long as he’s administering his father’s estate. If he were removed as executor, Steven would lose an important bargaining chip.

“We don’t represent Jane, but if there’s a common interest there, certainly we will pursue that,” Kian Daniel Khatibi, one of the attorneys representing Vostrikova, told The Real Deal.

It’s the latest entry in the sad and strange “Succession”-style contest over the late Sol Goldman’s real estate fortune.

“In fear”

At a deposition in December, an attorney asked Jane if she had any contact with Vostrikova about the case involving her nephew, or if any of the Goldman family entities had provided the Russian with money in connection with her litigation.

“I do believe some attorneys have been in contact with her,” she said, adding that Vostrikova will sometimes text her about other matters not related to the litigation.

A lawyer for Jane declined to comment.

Jane appears to have an uncomfortable — if unavoidable — relationship with Vostrikova, who had long been rumored to be having an affair with her brother (and Steven’s father), Allan Goldman.

Vostrikova (who goes by Natasha) had long been a nanny to Allan’s children and in later years worked as caretaker when he suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

But Steven claims she took advantage of his father’s deteriorating health, manipulating and isolating him from family members in order to line her own pockets with a six-figure salary and a $2 million “gift” from Allan’s estate. In 2021 she removed the ailing Goldman from his home in Mill Neck and took off for Russia, ostensibly to seek high-end medical care.

But instead she checked the two into a five-star hotel in Moscow and, Steven claims, neglected any serious care. Vostrikova eventually arranged for Allan to be driven 400 miles north in the depth of winter to a hospital in St. Petersburg, where he died alone in January 2022 at the age of 78.

Jane said she recently heard from Vostrikova with an unusual request. Vostrikova wanted to Jane to ask Steven to send his mother — Allan’s ex-wife — some money.

Jane and Steven have a notoriously strained relationship, but then again the entire Goldman affair makes for some strange bedfellows.

“I don’t think anything stops them from being friends,” Migir Ilganayev, another one of Vostrikova’s attorneys, said of his client and Jane. “They’ve known each other for a long time.”

Months after Allan died, Steven sued Vostrikova for more than $8 million in Nassau court. She responded by countersuing, claiming Steven had violated the “in terrorem” provisions of his father’s will (Latin for “in fear”) by challenging its validity — which would be grounds for removing him as executor.

That would have a domino effect through the larger Goldman power struggle.

The kicker

Last year Steven won a court case in Delaware that gave him voting rights on one of two LLCs that oversee Solil Management. From that position, Steven and his aunt Amy can deadlock the LLC against Jane and her sister Diane.

But Steven’s rights are only temporary and tied to his role administering his father’s estate. If Vostrikova were able to remove Steven as executor, Jane would avoid the deadlock.

“And, there’s a huge kicker,” Vostrikova’s lawyer Harold Bonacquist wrote in an email to Steven’s mother. “If the motion is granted, then Steven and his three sisters will also all be cut out of Allan’s estate, and will immediately lose their case against Jane — not because we are asking for such relief, but because those things are unavoidable consequences of the relief we do seek.”

Up until now, the Vostrikova affair had seemed like a bizarre side show to the main family feud. But the two are now fundamentally entangled.

Krieger Lewin attorney Dan Noble, one of the lawyers representing Steven, said it seems telling that Jane’s attorneys have been communicating with Natalia, given how much Jane stands to benefit from Natlia’s attempt to remove Steven from the estate.

“It’s very interesting that this theory is being advanced by Natalia’s lawyers,” he said. “She doesn’t stand to benefit from that, but Jane does.”