In March, for example, two directors of the Cy Twombly Foundation sued two trust administrators, accusing them of taking unauthorized fees and of inflating the value of Twombly's paintings to generate excessive fees and commissions.
In 2006, the judge said, he learned that his appointee, Michael Lippman, counsel to the Bronx public administrator, had taken unauthorized fees from the estates of people who had died without wills.
They said that Thomas H. Saliba, another of the foundation's four directors, took unauthorized fees for investment services, aided by Mr. Lerner, who was not initially named as a defendant.
The suit claims that Mr. Lerner, as the secretary and a director of the board of the foundation, charged the foundation unauthorized fees for legal services and hid those charges from other members of the board.
The online marketing company Webloyalty has agreed to pay $5.2 million in penalties and refunds to customers who were charged unauthorized fees after they signed up for discount club programs online, the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, announced on Tuesday.
But the Cy Twombly Foundation is now in turmoil amid accusations, detailed in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Delaware state court, that one of the four people who run it took more than $300,000 in unauthorized fees for investment services and was assisted in misappropriating the money by another foundation director, Ralph E. Lerner, a well-known art-world lawyer.
Two of the board members — Nicola del Roscio, the foundation's president, and Julie Sylvester, a museum curator — believe that the foundation's treasurer, Thomas Saliba, has been paying himself unauthorized fees with the knowledge of Ralph Lerner, a lawyer who is also a board member.
After six months of dragging his feet, Black resigned as chief executive officer and agreed to pay back to Hollinger $7.2 million in unauthorized fees.
The Metris Direct and Direct Merchants Bank unit of Metris Companies settled three separate lawsuits, consolidated in Hennepin County, Minn. Customers of the direct credit card marketer claimed they were assessed unauthorized fees and charges.
In some places, unauthorized fees reduced access to services.
