Wet-n-Wild cosmetics heirs battle over Acker estate

If there is one thing that the heirs to the Stanley Acker Wet-n-Wild cosmetics fortune can agree on, it’s that they are embroiled in irksome lawsuits.

The latest litigation is an adversarial proceeding filed Sept. 1 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains by David and Karen Acker against their brother Mark Acker, by which they seek to block him from using bankruptcy to cancel a nearly $1 million court judgment.

As sole administrator of their father’s estate, David and Karen claim, their brother ran up costs that “plagued and sapped the … the estate.”

But Mark Acker claims he had to file for Chapter 11 protection because a court judgment that had been issued against him in Florida was filed in Rockland County by his siblings, thus blocking his attempt to sell his house and pay creditors.

Stanley Acker created the Wet-n-Wild cosmetics brand and manufactured the products at a factory in Nyack. By 1984, the business employed more than 600 workers, according to a news account, and distributed lipsticks, nail polishes and other cosmetics to more than 100 countries.

He sold the company in 1997, reportedly for more than $100 million. He died in 2008.

His estate and a trust fund were filed in Palm Beach County, Florida where Acker and his wife wintered. Mark Acker was the administrator and sole trustee.

David, who lives in Vermont, and Karen, who lives in New York, claim that Mark’s administration of the estate led to numerous and duplicative lawsuits.

In 2020, a Florida court issued a $960,000 judgment against Mark and for David and Karen, mostly for legal fees.

The judge found that Mark’s testimony was not credible and he had violated a 2010 settlement agreement with his siblings. He had acted in his personal interests instead of in the best interests of the estate, for example, interfered with an IRS audit and made false allegations of a conspiracy to the IRS.

Mark Acker petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on June 15, declaring $757,464 in assets and $1.8 million in liabilities.

His primary asset is 50% interest in a $1.5 million house in Suffern that he and his wife cannot afford, according to a bankruptcy affidavit. They rent the house and live in an apartment in Haverstraw.

The $960,000 Florida court judgment is his primary liability, and he lists it as disputed.

Mark Acker retired from the South Nyack police department after he was severely injured in a 2019 motorcycle accident while on duty for the Rockland sheriff’s department. His only income is from Social Security disability and workers compensation benefits. Last year, he made $30,443.

“I filed this Chapter 11 case so that I can have the opportunity to stabilize my personal life,” he states in the bankruptcy affidavit, “liquidate most of my non-exempt assets, and formulate a plan of reorganization.”

Part of the plan is to get the Florida lien against his house cancelled, sell the house, pay off the mortgage and use his 50% share of the balance to pay creditors.

David and Karen are asking bankruptcy court to declare that the estate debts, including the $960,000 court judgment,  may not be discharged because they are a product of willful and malicious conduct, fraud, defalcation and breach of fiduciary duty.