Simon Lyons, 46, has filed a High Court claim seeking damages of more than £1million against his own mother, Miriam Lyons, 76, accusing her of taking part in a scheme to defraud him.
Lyons is the grandson of the late clothing retailer turned financier Jack Lyons, who was formerly Sir Jack, and the nephew of textiles tycoon Sir Harry Djanogly, whose personal fortune is estimated at £300million.
According to the court document, Lyons was defrauded in 2021 by his partners at a property business the family had co-founded 17 years earlier. From that moment, the claim states, Miriam "did not act as a mother" but "as a participant in the scheme against her son."
The document alleges Miriam operated "in concert" with one of the company's former directors and demanded that Simon transfer his shares as part of a pre-formulated "whole package." It claims she threatened that if he refused he would be left "penniless, friendless and without a reputation" and would lose his own daughter. She is also alleged to have spread "false allegations of substance abuse and instability to undermine his credibility and isolate him."
The claim further alleges Miriam would give Simon her support only if he surrendered his company computer.
Who was Jack Lyons?
Jack Lyons was one of Britain's most generous benefactors, giving major support to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House. But he became better known for being stripped of his knighthood after his conviction for theft and false accounting in the 1986 Guinness share-trading scandal. He died in 2008, aged 92, a year after Miriam divorced Simon's father, Jonathon, ending a 32-year marriage.
Miriam, through her lawyer, said she was "saddened by the current proceedings" but declined to comment further on the claims.
Simon said: "It's become a terrible, terrible mess. It's going into the High Court now because it couldn't be solved in a way that could be properly mediated, sadly. Especially when you're Jewish, to go and have a lawsuit in the family is not something you want to be doing. Airing dirty linen in public is not something anybody really wants to do."
Isabel Getty marries at Chelsea Old Town Hall
Isabel Getty, 32, a great-granddaughter of the five-times-married oil tycoon Paul Getty, married financier Faris McKinnon, 41, at Chelsea Old Town Hall this week. She is the lead singer of a rock band. The bride descended the steps arm-in-arm with McKinnon, who cradled their one-year-old son, Viggo, before the couple swept off in a vintage black Rolls-Royce to a wedding lunch at Harry's Bar in Mayfair.
Getty has previously said: "Some people bring a prejudice beforehand about meeting me. After a while hopefully that goes. It's just my family."
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