The daughter of a late billionaire has been branded “eligible” by a judge who denied her claim for a $228 million share of her estranged family’s fortune.
Serene Warren, 55, was awarded “only” $41 million by Judge Edward Wahl in Minneapolis last week and was ordered to pay her own costs.
The ruling ended a five-year fight that Wahl condemned as a “tragic litigation” and in which Warren became estranged from her late father, Ken Evenstad, and brother Mark Evenstad, who is her only sibling.
Of humble origins, Ken trained as a pharmacist and made his fortune after buying the Upsher-Smith pharmaceutical company in 1969 for $1,500.
The company was taken to even greater heights by Ken’s son Mark – Serene’s brother – after he was named CEO in 2004.
He quadrupled the company’s value to $1.1 billion by the time it was sold in 2017, but Serene – who has been a homemaker since 1994 – struck after her brother was financially rewarded for his hard work.
Serene Warren is pictured with her late father, Ken Evenstad, in an undated photo. She just lost her bid to collect $228 million from her family’s fortune after a Minneapolis judge ruled she had done nothing to earn it
Serene’s brother Mark, pictured, helped quadruple the size of the family pharmaceutical company Upsher-Smith, selling it for $1.1 billion in 2017, but Serene groaned when he was handed an additional 1.5 percent of the shares were, despite being a couch potato. Housemother since 1994
Mark Evenstad is pictured at the winery his late father named after his estranged sister Serene, who just lost her bid to claim a huge chunk of the fortune he helped create
She did so despite receiving more than $328 million over her lifetime from her father and mother Grace, who died in 2020.
The drama began after Ken decided to give Mark an additional 1.5 percent stake in 2014 as a reward for the company’s skyrocketing success.
Warren felt it was unfair that her brother was getting the extra shares, and the bad blood continued even as her father was battling a terminal illness.
In 2016, she broke off all communication with her family.
In 2017, she called for the sale of the family business as a path to her own “financial independence.”
At the time, she owned 25 percent of the company, which was valued at around a quarter billion dollars.
In 2018, Warren sued her family over $75 million in bonuses paid to Ken and Mark Evenstad, arguing they unfairly reduced the value of the company and, in turn, their stake.
An independent auditor found that the bonuses were fair and Ken and his son were underpaid for many years given the impact they had on the formerly small pharmaceutical company.
Judge Edward Wahl, chief of the Hennepin County court, said it was painful that Warren chose “this tragic lawsuit” instead of accepting a settlement offered years ago that would have gotten her away with $150 million.
Warren has been a homemaker since 1994 and her husband Chris, 56, has been unemployed since 2004.
The couple resides in a stunning $3 million five bedroom, five bathroom mansion on Lake Minnetonka.
However, Wahl said Warren developed a sense of “entitlement” to what her parents owed her, according to The Star Tribune’s verdict.
Wahl praised “the generosity of[Warren’s]parents.”
Ken was once so devoted to his daughter that he even named his famous Oregon winery after her – Domaine Serene, a popular tourist destination in the Willamette Valley.
Serene and husband Chris live in this $3.0 million mansion in Minnesota. Chris hasn’t worked since 2004
Serene and Ken are pictured at Domaine Serene – the famous Oregon winery he named in his daughter’s honor
Ken is pictured with his wife Grace at their Domaine Serene winery in Oregon. It was named after her daughter, who was estranged from both parents at the time of her father’s death in 2020
Wahl said it was sad that the family dispute had to be publicly broadcast.
“The tragedy of this case is now compounded by the court’s duty to explain its decision in detail in a public forum,” said Wahl.
“The court is not content to have to set out in this detailed manner what is likely to have been better for all the key players had it been resolved through private negotiations.”
Judge Wahl said in his ruling that Warren was unable to judge how her father and brother ran the company.
He said that Ken and his wife Grace, along with Mark, all “exemplify the qualities of many successful, dedicated business leaders” who work hard and accumulate the kind of knowledge that helps them make “tough business decisions.”
Serene Warren tried to make a big claim on her family’s pharmaceutical company, Upsher-Smith – but Judge Ken Wahl ruled she had done nothing to bolster the family’s finances and was not entitled to the sum claimed
He added: “Serene and Chris, on the other hand, have chosen a different path.
“As a result of her life choices, Serene did not have the business experience and related skills and knowledge that Ken, Grace and Mark possessed when decision times crucial to this litigation occurred between 2016 and 2019.”
The judge said he could see why some decisions were “churning” but couldn’t tell she had been cheated.
Ken Everstad died in 2020 at the age of 77.
Wahl said the case was sad but reflected the decisions Warren made.
“If Serene is disappointed that she might not end up with a sizable inheritance on top of her hundreds of millions in shareholder distributions, she’s made decisions over the last six years that have consequences,” he said.