Complaint Review: John Ohop - Shelby Ohop

Planning for your future: Wills, Trusts and the Untrustworthy Planning to create a will? Read this. This is the true story of a Massachusetts family dealing with the unlawful actions of John Ohop, executor of his deceased bother's estate.

In April 2007 Ronald Ohop of Southbridge, Mass. deceased. He was the owner and operator of the Mass Tree Company, a well established company that specialized in tree trimming, excavation and cord wood sales. If you lived in Southbridge, you couldn't miss his big red trucks. He operated the company for over 30 years, securing more business than he could handle and put together a rather large estate. He acquired numerous trucks, pieces of equipment and land. Through economical living and hard work, he was able to put together a nest egg of cash in a large safe built into his basement floor. Eyewitness accounts state that he had over 2,000,000 in the vault and no less than $1,500,000. In the mid 1980's, Ronald had created a will that left his estate evenly divided between his siblings. He was unmarried with no children so had trusted his youngest brother, John Ohop of Stoneham, MA as executor of the will.

This is where things got very fishyShortly after being named executor of the will, John who was accompanied by his son Jonathan and his brother-in-law went to the home of the deceased and had the safe professionally opened. According to accounts of the brother-in-law that had accompanied him, there was over two million dollars in cash in the vault. There were bundles of money- some envelopes as large as $500,000. Approximately 12-15 bundles of cash were removed. Jonathan, John's son had remarked, We're rich! The three had counted a few bundles and laid the bills out on the floor of the house to check accuracy. According to the witness, the floor was completely covered in currency. They packed up the contents of the safe and the original plan was to return to a sibling's home and disclose the findings to the rest of the group and divide the contents evenly.

They returned back to the family member's home, and John's plans seemed to change very quickly. John had packed up his clothing from the overnight stay, the contents of the safe and quickly loaded the car with the help of his wife and son. Within minutes tires were spinning and John, his son Jonathan and wife Shelby were headed home to Stoneham, MA. Shelby herself, had jokingly remarked to certain family members days before that they had better watch out or they could end up with nothing, as she sipped her wine.

Over the last year, John has stayed far away from the rest of the family. He has avoided contact, phone calls and emails. If anyone could get in contact with him, he would claim that there was nothing but a moldy envelope with $10,000 in wet currency stored in the safe -no where near a significant amount of money. He would then harass and threaten family members that had inquired about the status of the estate. In a phone conversation with his sister, she stated to him that the safe had over $1,500,000 in it. He replied I KNOW!!!... and threatened to let her deal with the implications. As executor, he has not allowed his family members near Ronnie's vacant home. Finally, after nearly 18 months, through an estate lawyer, the family was allowed to visit the property. They were disgusted to find that the entire property was completely unkept, the house in shambles, trucks and equipment rusted and rotting. Meanwhile, during the last year he has purchased new cars for his wife and son, taken lavish vacations, paid for his son's college, and basically lived it up for the last year on his brother's dime.

It sickens me to see this happen. John Ohop has betrayed his family in every possible way and has been very obvious about it. I have known the Ronald Ohop (the deceased), and his family for years. Ron was a good man that worked very hard for what he had- from morning until night. Knowing him closely for years, I can personally attest that he had a lot of money saved. I have even seen the contents of the safe myself over the years. Ron had even kept a detailed list of the contents which noted dates and deposit amounts. I can also attest that he would have wanted things done the right way...not like this! John Ohop has had every chance to correct his actions, make amends and do right by his brother's wishes. He has clearly chosen to take the low road and I would like very much to see him held accountable for these atrocities.

As an outside party, I have nothing to gain in writing this. I only want to see justice done for Ronald's family. I also want to expose, a true criminal and show how a will created by good intentions left in the wrong hands can create a disaster like this. Don't let this happen to you!

Any advice would be extremely helpful!

Advocate
Charlton, Massachusetts
U.S.A.