Roman Blum left about $40 million and no will in 2012, a Surrogate's Court threw out a will naming a disbarred lawyer, and a Moscow man says he is the great-grandson

Roman Blum survived the Holocaust and became a real estate developer on Staten Island. He died in 2012 at 97 with about $40 million and no will. His lawyer, Herb Nass, said he had urged him to make one. The county public administrator's staff searched his home and found gold and jewellery but no will. Officials found no spouse, child, sibling, parent, grandparent or first cousin. If no heir is proved, the money goes to New York State's unclaimed funds. Anthony J. Allegrino II produced a 2006 will leaving everything to him. The Surrogate's Court dismissed it in 2016 for lack of proof and questioned the signature. In 2021 a federal judge threw out his malpractice suit against his lawyers and noted his 2005 disbarment in California. In December 2022 the New York Post reported two more claims. Maxim Shimnyuk, 44, of Moscow, relies on a genealogy report filed in the Surrogate's Court that names him the only lineal descendant, a great-grandson. Teresa Musial says an unfiled 1987 will left everything to Helen Pietrucha, who died in 1999 and whose estate Musial inherited; both witnesses are dead. The public administrator then estimated that about half the estate remained after taxes and fees. No ruling on these claims was found as of October 2026.