Bob Marley died without a will, and his widow forged his signature to move his companies into her name

Bob Marley died of cancer at 36. He left no will, a wife, Rita, and 11 children by several women. Under Jamaican intestacy law Rita received 10 percent outright and a life interest in 45 percent; the 11 children shared the rest. Rita was appointed an administrator in December 1981 with a bank and businessman George Desnoes. Lawyer David Steinberg and accountant Marvin Zolt advised her to sign Marley's name on three documents backdated to 1978, transferring his offshore companies to her. Rita admitted the forgery in court, was removed as an administrator and was not charged. In 1992 a New York jury found Steinberg and Zolt liable for fraud and cleared Rita. The judgment, affirmed in 1995, included $2.86 million in damages and $250,000 in punitive damages against Steinberg. The estate was put up for sale. In 1988 Island Logic, Chris Blackwell's company, bid $8.2 million. The children appealed to the Privy Council in London, which ordered new bids in 1990. On 9 December 1991 Jamaica's Supreme Court accepted an $11.5 million bid from the adult family members with Island Logic, over a $15.2 million bid from MCA. In 2010 a federal judge ruled that five Island albums from 1973 to 1977 were works for hire owned by Universal Music Group, and the family company Fifty-Six Hope Road Music lost. In 2026 the family company sells the Marley name and image; the master recordings of those albums remain with Universal.