Allegations Against Julia Koch and Matchmaker for Her?

Recently it was alleged the 58 year old Julia Koch (widow of David Koch) used nurses to lock her husband David Koch into a room during a dinner party, used code names for real estate property she didn't want her husband to know about, and even had a male companion that she traveled with. 

The allegations were made by Felicia Racine a 29 year old bodyguard and former U.S. Air Force veteran for the Koch family (what is interesting is the security company that protects the Koch family is named Matador Security Company Inc.-which is also the name of the Koch ranch subsidiary/cattle company of Koch Industries). Racine filed an Employment Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after working for the Koch family between January 2018 through April 2020. She was fired in April 2020 an she alleges a discriminatory firing as her husband who was in the Air Force was transferred to California. 

When Racine began employment she alleged that Julia had a 58 year old "boyfriend" Charles Manger (it should be pointed out that Julia Koch is also 58 years old) even though she had been married to David Koch since 1996-which is odd since I can't find any photos of the Julia and Charles together. In fact their alleged relationship was discussed as part of the training for the bodyguards. However, I have seen over the years photos of Julia Koch with real estate agent Bradley Comisar. Manger apparently visited one of many Koch residences (including the South Hampton residence). Racine would have to provide protection for both Charles and Julia as part of her job. In a related news story it looks like a matchmaker may help Julia "find a new husband". Patty Siegal a Hollywood publicist is assigned with the task (she was brought down when the New York Times claimed she helped Jeffrey Epstein rejoin polite society". For the record though a representative for both Julia Koch and Siegal have denied this is true.

Other alleged duties of her job entailed Racine included getting David Koch Jr. a fake identification and making the bed for daughter Mary Koch (I would think with their kind of wealth they would have maids doing this) and preventing Mary from hopping on private planes for short trips to visit friends. 

Another claim was that Julia would refer to homes as code names so David Koch was not aware of these purchases. In October 2018 the Koch's purchased a $40 million Manhattan townhouse which was well publicized. In 2016 the Koch family suffered a small fire at their 740 Park Avenue home. Julia Koch had been renovating the home for a number of years and David Koch made the comment "I told Julia there was no budget, and she still managed to go over the budget". In addition to keeping real estate Julia also wanted to keep family trips secret as well. A so called Project X trip to South Africa where Julia would bring her siblings, nieces, and nephews was to be kept from David Koch. 

Also there is the allegation that back in 2019 during a dinner party David Koch was leaving his bedroom and attempted to put his arm around his wife and said he loved her only to have Julia asked another staffer and some nurses to take David back to his room and "lock the door, so he doesn't interrupt the dinner party again" according to the allegation. Given that Koch Industries never released what illness David was battling it is unknown whether his cognitive abilities were affected. 

A spokesperson for Koch Industries has called these allegations "baseless". Although, I have been following the Koch family for almost a decade (my first on Koch can be found here-back in 2011) I have never heard Julia Koch talk (despite spending hundreds of hours finding obscure documents/videos/and other interesting findings). The question will be will Julia Koch issue a press release regarding these comments including an interview or will the family settle the lawsuit out of court to keep things hush hush. 

It should be important to note that David Koch had declining health for many years before he passed. Charles Koch noted that back in October 2016 that his brother's health was going downhill. Also if you look at Getty Images the past few years photos of David Koch show him having lost weight, not looking well, and towards the end mostly Julia Koch in photos and his absence. Speaking of images if you look at photos of David Koch from the 1980's (here and here and even in the mid 1990's here it appears his teeth are discolored, however then by the early 2000's you can see his teeth are very white and straight (maybe Julia talked to him about this). 

Also I have reported before that David Koch in the mid 1990's attended some events with attractive women (one before he married Julia and one after he married Julia). I am guessing that David was friendly with these women but I would be curious to know how Julia felt about this. With these recent allegations the Koch camp claims they are baseless (if they are really baseless then Koch should counter sue for defamation).

It is hard to know how much (if any of the allegations are true). My hunch is that some parts may be true but until there is more data it is hard to speculate. Ms. Raccine may just want her 15 minutes of fame and move on. The thing that is surprising is I would have thought that Koch would have contracts that employees would be required to sign (especially ones working directly for the family) to avoid issues like this and to keep things confidential. The other question is if other former employees will start speaking out as well. Of course time will tell. 

David Koch Sells Aspen Homes (Available for Rent) and His Impact on Aspen Community

Recently, David Koch sold both of his Aspen homes. It was reported by the Aspen Times who reported it as the largest property transaction for the week. I blogged about the home in previous post regarding the lifestyle of David Koch here. Koch actually purchased two homes.

The first home was purchased by David Koch back in January 1989 for $1.9 million. This main Aspen home was 8,100 square feet, 5 bedrooms, and a sit on just over 1 acre of land. The home was remodeled in 2013. The home would be part of a Vanity Fair photo shoot in March 2003 (the photo shoot was just after Christmas in 2002). The 865 Roaring Fork Road home is available for rent for $175,000 per month. As you can see from the listing the home as a very extensive wine cellar. The home was sold in June 2020 to the Lauder family for $23 million (this would say that the annual compounded growth rate of the home was almost 9%/year-however this doesn't take into account money put into the home to update and upgrade).

Under a 2003 Trust (David H Koch 2003 Trust-the trust was created in January 2003) the home was purchased (David Koch himself was the original purchaser of the home. The problem is if you pass and you own a home in a state (which is not your residence) then the home is subject to the probate process. If the home is placed inside a trust it avoids having to go through the probate process (if something goes through the probate process it is open for the public to view it). The home was famous when David was a bachelor in the early 1990's and would have 800 guests for the annual New Year's Eve party and was ranked as one of the best parties by Newsweek to crash. On Christmas Eve 1993 Charles Koch gave a moving toast to his brother David Koch and after Charles was done with his speech David asked "Does this mean you will let your daughter Liz go to my New Year's Eve party" and Charles responded "Hell, no". Charles obviously knew what went on at those parties and knew his brother.

The second Aspen home David purchased was actually on the same street and had three bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2,675 square feet (more like a guest home) and last year valued at $7.9 million. It should be pointed out that brother Charles Koch owns a property on the same road as his former brother David did.  David Koch purchased the home in December 1991 for only $1.75 million. The home in June 2020 was sold for $12 million (~6.8% appreciation per year). This home is actually available for rent as I write this for $50,000 per month.

David Koch had an impact on the Aspen community. Back in the 1990's Koch was a significant investor into the Isis Theater (the theater is temporarily closed due to COVID). The main attraction to him was the potential investment in the theater. In 1992 he tried to donate an Olympic size rink to the city of Aspen (Koch himself was willing to spend $3 million (he actually spent $50,000 on the planning and designing of the rink) however the rink was rejected by by the city council (it failed by 1 vote). The issue was during the summer the rink would having to be moved and transforming the area for other purposes was going to be too disruptive. David Koch during his life was also a board of trustees for the Aspen Institute. During the 1990's Koch gave over $1 million to the institute who was known for as a non partisan think tank that is committed to ideas in the area of business, energy, education, and other topics. It was actually at a July 2015 Aspen Institute event that David Koch ran into climate change activist supporter Tom Steyer were they chatted for a few minutes, posed for pictures (even shaking hands-I wonder how the woke folks would feel about this), and then after the event privately had coffee.

My guess is that the Koch estate is looking for liquidity. With $23 million on one home sell and $12 million would be roughly about $35 million of liquidity. Remember these monies were placed into trust as well so they will stay in trust unless distributed. Although, I don't know how the estate plan for David Koch works but there is no doubt it will provide estate liquidity.