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Anorak News | Alexandre Despallieres And The Death Of Peter Ikin

Alexandre Despallieres And The Death Of Peter Ikin

by | 13th, July 2009

ANROAK’s Man in LA looks at the death of Australian music executive Peter Ikin last November, who dropped dead at 62 in a Paris hotel room – possibly after a fall down a flight of stairs – shortly after marrying a young Frenchman named Alexandre Despallieres who cremated ole ‘PI’ and poured the former evidence into an urn.

Now read on:

Now it turns out that young Alexandre not only got PI’s ashes, he’s also got his entire estate thanks to a “secret” will– and his Aussie mates and journos alike smell something fishy.

Writes Sydney Morning Telegraph:

Despallieres, who told Ikin he was an internet billionaire dying from a brain tumour, has moved into Ikin’s £3 million ($A5.8 million) Chelsea pad and emptied £2 million from his Channel Island bank accounts.

“Last week he was spending some of the money on a new Porsche for his personal assistant, Jeremy Bilien, home after a recent stint in London’s famous celebrity Priory Hospital.

“Ikin and Despallieres had exchanged vows at Chelsea Town Hall on October 10. The executive died on November 12.

“Ikin’s Sydney solicitor Peter Court, with whom he had lodged a 2002 will which did not mention Despallieres, only found out about the second will last month.

“It was signed on August 7, 2008 in Paris and not witnessed by a lawyer but by Mr Bilien and another friend of Despalliere’s, Vincent Bray...

“In the 2002 will, drawn up by Mr Court, Ikin left his wealth to two Sydney charities, friends, his god children and his only blood relative, nephew Father Garry Perritt, a Sydney Catholic priest…

“During their whirlwind romance, they met Ikin’s friends who happened to be stars such as Elton John and Stewart…

“Taking delivery of the Porsche last week outside the Chelsea apartment in exclusive Cheyne Place, Despallieres, 42, laughed at the suggestion he had a brain tumour.

“He said he had been suffering from HIV for 23 years. Actress Britt Ekland, a friend of Ikin’s through Rod Stewart’s former manager Billy Gaff, has been helping care for him, taking him for short walks…”

Celebrity… money… gay marriage… disputed wills… and a cast of characters that spans the world.

Keep an eye on this one…

TB



Posted: 13th, July 2009 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink