Catherine Douglas is the daughter of deceased tycoon Henry Douglas, who she set up to die in 2010 for an inheritance tax loophole associated with that year.
History[]
Catherine wanted her entire share of her family's estate and she saw an opportunity when a tax loophole in U.S. estate law left her with everything without additional fees if Henry died in 2010. Her family executor, Bruce Graham, worked with an oncologist, Dr. Vincent Balicheck, to find patients wanting to exploit this loophole, and Henry conveniently was dying from cancer. He was placed in the clinic by Catherine and Graham so Balicheck could kill Henry faster to meet the cutoff date, and the plan worked. However, it had to be pulled off through placental cells for stem cell therapy, so Amanda Green, Catherine's ex-girlfriend, carried Catherine's baby as a surrogate so the cells could be harvested. Their marriage didn't entitle them to all rights as a same-sex couple, so Catherine adopted Amanda to share estate rights.
The con came to light after Catherine's niece and Henry's granddaughter Annie died from an accidental overdose. The records showing Henry's change in cancer clinics slowly unraveled the con when the key players were connected. Dr. Balicheck, Graham, Catherine, and a couple other heirs were all arrested and arraigned for consolidated trials on their charges. When Catherine's and Amanda's relationship came to light, as the case weighed on Catherine, the prosecution's push for removing Amanda's rights to estate was used to also nullify her marriage to Catherine, all to incentive her testimony. However, they realized with how Amanda conceived her baby, Catherine threatened a custody battle if Amanda testified. The prosecution decided to falsely threaten with Annie's reckless cousin Randy Colwyn getting guardianship. From this, Catherine pleaded out to ensure Amanda had custody of the baby and accepted s reduced prison sentence. Graham was then pushed to give up the rest of the conspiracy. (L&O: "The Taxman Cometh")