Trying to sell part to Island Records for $8.2 million. LTD: Jamaican bank, court- appointed administrator of Marley's $30 million estate, represented in the U.S. MUTUAL SECURITY MERCHANT BANK AND TRUST CO. Lost her entitlement to almost half of Marley's estate after being charged with forging stock transfers in his name, diverting almost $17 million from the estate. Fighting to keep a $300,000 south Dade house she says Marley bought for her. A Jamaican court has already impounded Rita Marley's share of the estate.Īt the same time, other claims popped up, several from Marley's children and their mothers one from the Wailers, Marley's eight bandmates at the time of his death and another from Cayman Music, which claims to own some of Marley's recordings. Steinberg and Zolt face federal criminal charges in New York. About $17 million allegedly was diverted. Under Jamaican law, Marley's money would have been divided roughly half and half between his widow and his children when they reach 18.īut in 1986, Marley's wife, Rita, his business attorney, David Steinberg, and his accountant, Marvin Zolt, were accused of forging stock transfers in Bob Marley's name. Reid Bingham, a Miami attorney representing the court-appointed estate administrators against Booker.
It is so complex it astounds even the lawyers involved. Still, the turmoil created by Marley's death has been substantial.
let me suffer more than he was able to deliver me." When none, I still give God praise," Booker says. "I try to adjust meself to my life of living. "I'm a buffalo soldier, dreadlock Rasta," he sang proudly.Īnd in his mother's life as well, the Rasta faith is integral. Marley became Rasta's most visible spokesman and gained a mystical status among followers. Rastafarians, known for their twisted braids called dreadlocks and ritual use of ganja (marijuana), worship Haile Selassie - emperor of Ethiopia from 1930-1974. Marley stayed in Jamaica, where he discovered the reggae music and Rastafarian religion that would change his life. Later, she fought her way out of Trench Town, a ghetto in Kingston, and on to a new life in Wilmington, Del. "But the more they fight on me, the more God give me strength."Īs a 19-year-old in the rural Jamaica town of Nine Miles, Booker fought back from betrayal after Marley's father, a white overseer, deserted her. "They make me cry too hard, they do me too much," Booker says, referring to the legal tug-of-war. Some of Marley's heirs are contesting the deal. They want to include the property in an $8.2-million sale of Marley's estate to Chris Blackwell, president of Island Records, Marley's record label. The estate administrator, Mutual Security Merchant Bank of Jamaica, says the house belongs to the estate because the deed was in Marley's name. There are more than 20 involved, arguing in courtrooms from London to New York to Miami to Kingston.Įmbedded in the mass of lawsuits and inheritance claims is a smaller dispute - one that literally hits home for Booker.īooker is fighting to keep the two-story, $300,000 south Dade house she says Marley bought for her. So far, only the lawyers seem to be receiving any substantial money. 19, Anthony repeatedly warned his mother: "Mama, they're trying to hurt you.