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Case file s417 · Foundations · 2008
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2008
Paul Newman: Paul Newman - 1958
Paul Newman. Unknown authorUnknown author, dedicated to Bettmann Archive. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
26 September 2008
Place
Westport, Connecticut · United States
Field
actor; food company founder · Film and television on the timeline
Legal tradition
US federal tax law (IRC 4943); Connecticut law · Common law
Historical event
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018
Religion
Paul Newman: Jewish (recorded as 20th-century American Jews, 21st-century American Jews, American Ashkenazi Jews on Wikipedia)
FoundationsSeized by the stateGiven awayNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Paul Newman left his food company to a foundation run by his adviser, his daughter said the family was pushed out, and Congress changed the law for it

In 1982 Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner started Newman's Own with $20,000 each, and all its after-tax profits went to charity. Newman made his adviser Robert Forrester the first president and CEO of Newman's Own Foundation in 2005, and later chairman. When Newman died in 2008 Forrester took control of both the company and the foundation. By 2015 the foundation had given $430 million, more than $170 million of it after Newman's death. In 2015 Newman's daughter Susan said Forrester had taken the family "hostage" and pushed them off the foundation board; Forrester said he was following Newman's wishes. Nell Newman's license for Newman's Own Organics was not renewed in 2014. A private foundation that owns 100% of a company breaks the 20% excess business holdings rule. On 9 February 2018 Congress added section 4943(g), letting a foundation own a whole company if it received the shares other than by purchase, passes on all net operating income, keeps the founder's family out of the company's management, and has a majority-independent board. Forrester was fired in 2019 after an internal review of allegations of inappropriate behavior†.

What the law took from it

The 2018 exception lets a foundation keep a whole company only if the founder's family stays out of running it, so the family trades control for the exemption.

Sources
  1. Cornell Law School, LIICourt record
  2. Vanity FairPress
  3. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Paul Newman left his food company to a foundation run by his adviser, his daughter said the family was pushed out, and Congress changed the law for it,” story s417, https://www.celebrity.estate/paul-newman-2008, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

FoundationsSeized by the stateGiven awayNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States