Dying Dynasty: Billionaire family that inspired hit 1980s soap is back at war as grandson of oil tycoon who left $6B fortune is branded ‘an unstable pathological liar’ by his own stepdad – who claims he was cheated out of $50M in joint business ventures

Move over Logan Roy. There’s a new succession story in town: a story of greed, deceit and drugs that has torn apart the family of an industry titan.

The grandson of late oil magnate Marvin Davis, who owned the Beverly Hills Hotel and sold 20th Century Fox to Rupert Murdoch, will appear in court this week against his own stepfather.

Marvin’s grandson Alex Davis, 40, became mega-rich through early investments in data company Palantir and genetics company 23 & Me, and now heads an investment company with top athletes Patrick Mahomes, Justin Verlander, Naomi Osaka and Robert Lewandowski on its board.

Davis will go on trial this week in Los Angeles in a legal – and intensely personal – feud with his stepfather, Ken Rickel.

Rickel claims Davis defrauded him of more than $50 million in their joint business, then reneged on a deal they agreed to to smooth things over.

The 70-year-old says he raised Davis after his biological father left his mother, Nancy Davis, and repeatedly rescued the boy from trouble.

“Believing they had a true father-son relationship, Rickel trusted Davis,” Rickel said in legal documents.

But now there is no love lost between the two.

Rickel’s legal complaint, filed in December 2020, is a vicious indictment of his stepson, accusing Davis of “untreated drug and wine addiction” and a “vicious mind,” calling him a “pathological liar, unstable and erratic ‘, is called an ‘ungrateful’. ‘an evil defect of character’ and ‘inability to restrain his greed’.

The Davis family was the inspiration for the Carringtons, protagonists of Aaron Spelling’s ’80s soap Dynasty, but Rickel’s cutting insults were more like the script of HBO’s Succession.

Rickel alleged that Davis appropriated his share of their company, Disruptive Technology Advisors (DTA), in early 2014 while Rickel “tended to his dying father in Florida.”

The money they’re fighting over has ballooned with the success of companies like Palantir, where they invested $8.5 million in their early stages and raised another $275 million.

He alleged that Davis “created fraudulent documents that literally removed him from his own company and transferred Rickel’s 50 percent ownership share to two of Davis’ friends.”

After they reached a settlement in April 2014, Rickel alleges that Davis “fraudulently created dozens of new companies … in order to take Rickel out of his rightful share.”

In legal documents, Rickel called Davis “a pathological liar, unstable and erratic” whose “judgment and ability to function on a daily basis are hopelessly impaired by his severe and untreated drug and wine addiction.”

“He abused prescription drugs, opioids and sleeping pills. His memory is clouded by his substance abuse problem, and he is neither clear-headed nor a clear thinker,” according to his 2020 legal filing.

‘Davis is rarely sober, cannot drive safely and employs a security guard as a driver. In several car accidents he is such a danger that he is not allowed to drive his children. A man who cannot be trusted to drive safely because of his chronic sobriety is not fit to act as a fiduciary and manage the money of others.”

For his part, Davis says his stepfather is a crook, and the one who renounces.

Rickel’s furious filing was in response to an original lawsuit from Davis in September 2020, which asked a judge to uphold their 2014 pact, which he claimed his stepfather exceeded.

Davis highlighted Rickel’s alleged illegal securities trading, for which the SEC charged him in 2008 and for which he paid a $150,000 fine.

The tycoon’s grandson claimed it deterred investors from backing their joint company they founded in 2011, forcing him to go it alone.

Davis claims that he, not Rickel, discovered Palantir, and when he told his stepfather in February 2014 that he had raised $275 million to invest in the data company, Rickel tried to get back in, Davis claimed.

The stepfather and son will face off in a courtroom battle before a jury that begins Thursday in Santa Monica Superior Court.

Rickel’s wife and Davis’ mother Nancy, 65, are likely to become embroiled in the courtroom drama, with Rickel’s lawyers calling her as a witness – much to Davis’ dismay.

In a September 14 filing, Rickel alleged that Davis is “attempting to exclude his mother’s testimony at trial because he knows she will testify that he is grossly exaggerating his involvement with her father, Marvin Davis,” which Rickel said merely amounts to “someone who occasionally hung out in his grandfather’s office during high school.”

Davis argued against her inclusion, saying it would “inflame the jury” for a mother to testify against her own son — even though he had previously subpoenaed her for testimony in the case.

A legal filing by Rickel’s lawyers includes an angry email exchange between Alex and Nancy dated October 7, 2020.

The son told his oil heiress mother that he is “just asking the judge if he agrees or disagrees with me so we can put this behind us once and for all.”

But Nancy wasn’t having it.

“It seems that you cannot admit the truth and acknowledge the FACT that you filed a lawsuit against your stepfather, my husband, the father of your sisters, who was completely unnecessary, cruel, very dishonest and disrespectful in every way possible and who immediately started pushing everything to try to discredit and destroy Kenny and his reputation,” Davis’ mother wrote.

“You’re using your grandfather’s name in a way that would make him turn in his grave,” she added. “This is inexcusable.”

The magnate’s grandson also pleaded against any mention of his alleged drug use to the jury, including Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, for which he has a prescription, according to court documents.

Davis said mentioning it would be “irrelevant” because he was not drunk during the key events at issue in the case.

Rickel’s attorneys filed a motion on September 14 saying Nancy will testify that “Davis was not only taking Suboxone, but drinking alcohol at the same time.” She saw him behaving erratically, slurring his words and unable to remember things he had said or done.”

They claim his allegedly defective, drug-addled memory will be relevant in the trial.

The Davis family has been plagued by infighting and tragedy since their patriarch died in 2004, leaving behind a fortune of $5.8 billion, according to a Forbes estimate.

Marvin’s eldest daughter, Patricia Davis Raynes, sued her mother and four siblings, claiming they conspired to steal her trust fund before the tycoon’s death, and that Marvin framed and beat her to get her to sign documents handing over control of her finances.

Her sister Nancy also sued their brother Gregg over his alleged undervaluation of the family oil company Davis Petroleum when it was sold in 2006.

In 2018, Raynes found her son Nick dead in his Upper East Side bathroom, at the age of 33, after taking heroin laced with fentanyl.

In February 2020, Alex Davis’ brother Jason Davis, the voice of Recess character Mikey Blumberg, also died of a fentanyl overdose at the age of 35.

His other brother, Brandon, became famous for dating starlet Mischa Barton and feuding with Lindsay Lohan, nicknamed her “Firecroch.”

Brandon reportedly racked up $300,000 in debt at Wynn Las Vegas and Bellagio casinos, and was arrested for drug possession in 2014 before going to rehab for alcohol and cocaine addiction.