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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Actress Faces Bank Turnover in New York

ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) - New York wants to grab money from the joint bank account of Faye Dunaway and her son to satisfy a tax lien against the Oscar-winning actress, court records show.

State tax officials filed the so-called turnover petition against Dunaway, son Liam O'Neill and Wells Fargo Bank for a tax warrant issued in January for unpaid 2007 city personal income taxes.

The petition, dated Sept. 9, seeks Albany County Supreme Court approval to take money in the Wells Fargo account. The document lists the amount due as just over $14,000.

Dunaway, 74, won an Oscar in 1977 for her portrayal of a power-hungry TV executive opposite delusional anchor Peter Finch in "Network"; she was also nominated for Oscars for her leading roles in "Chinatown" and "Bonnie and Clyde," according to online resource IMDb.

Liam O'Neill, 35, is the son of Dunaway and her second husband, photographer Terry O'Neill, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper reported in February that Liam O'Neill purchased a condominium in West Hollywood, in a building called the Westview Towers, whose address matches one of two listed in the New York turnover petition for Dunaway and O'Neill.

The other address in the petition matches one listed online by Dun & Bradstreet for Port Bascom Productions in West Hollywood, a production company owned by Dunaway. IMDb says it was named for Dunaway's hometown of Bascom, Fla.

The turnover petition indicates that Wells Fargo Bank, as garnishee-respondent, was served with the tax warrant in the Bronx in March. A restraining order followed in June.

Dunaway and O'Neill also received copies at the West Hollywood addresses, according to the petition.

The petition indicates Albany County Supreme Court has jurisdiction over the bank according to state law, which says that "a court sitting in New York that has personal jurisdiction over a garnishee bank can order the bank to produce stock certificates [or cash equal to their value] located outside New York."

Wells Fargo placed a hold on a joint account of Dunaway and O'Neill in Los Angeles, according to a petition exhibit.

The exhibit, labeled "questionnaire accompanying information subpoena," says the Dunaway-O'Neill savings account contained $770,000, $93,000 and $28,136.52 as of Jan. 29. A parenthetical notation, "(held)," is next to the latter amount.

The notarized document contains handwritten answers to the questions posed. It is signed by Chantel Buchler, identified as an agent of Wells Fargo Bank in Maricopa County, Ariz.

Another exhibit, a copy of the tax warrant dated Jan. 13, shows Dunaway originally owed $5,600 in personal income tax for 2007.

A penalty of $2,200 and interest since then brought the total owed to $14,068.26 as of June 3, according to the turnover petition.

A spokesman for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance did not immediately return a request for comment.

Dunaway, who acted on Broadway before shifting to film, had a rent-controlled apartment in New York City before her landlord sought to evict her in 2011 for not living there.

The New York Times reported that the subsidized rent on the one-bedroom walk-up in an Upper East Side building was just over $1,000 a month - less than half what it would average on the open market. The newspaper said Liam O'Neill was listed in the landlord's housing court complaint as a subtenant.

Dunaway subsequently told Reuters she planned to vacate the apartment. O'Neill said he never lived there.

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