A Manhattan socialite was happy to blow $16.2 million a year on luxuries like a grouse-hunting estate and a 16-seat jet while married to her hedge funder husband — but now she’s balking at the divorce bill.
Lara Schmidt Trafelet is suing a forensic accounting firm for charging her an “outrageous” $75,000-a-week for its work in her vicious split from estranged husband, Remy White Trafelet.
But the company insists that was just what it cost to set up a “war room” so it could trace the former couple’s exorbitant annual spending.
Lara, 49, pushed forensic accountants at Cipolla & Co. “to take the most aggressive stance possible regardless of cost” last July after Remy, 48, refused to move out of their $15 million Park Avenue apartment and $10 million Glen Head, Long Island, summer home, they claim in legal papers.
Lara’s attorney instructed the accountants “to kick [Mr. Trafelet] between his legs and bring him to his knees,” Cipolla lawyer David Mair said in an arbitration claim demanding $2.7 million in unpaid fees.
But untangling the Trafelets’ $200 million fortune — which was entirely controlled by the husband, according to the accountants — was complicated by his “multi-layered complex web of business entities.”
How the family spent their money was equally dizzying.
“The Trafelet marital lifestyle was opulent with annual spending in excess of $16.2 million,” Mair says.
Their six residences include the New York homes, the grouse-hunting estate in Scotland and a quail farm in Georgia.
They also had a personal trainer, chauffeur, assistant, and private chef on their payroll — plus the jet for “ultra-luxury vacations that cost as much as $400,000 in a single year,” according to Mair.
The accountants claim the $4.2 million fees over 13 months were legitimate as they toiled “around the clock” to untangle $600 million in transactions from 13 bank accounts and even set up a dedicated conference area titled the “War Room” for Lara’s personal use.
Cipolla’s efforts yielded a boost in interim alimony for Lara from $17,000 a month to $45,000 a month, the accountants claim.
But Lara counters that Cipolla’s bills are widely inflated and she can’t afford them as the “non-monied, unemployed spouse in a hotly contested divorce action.”
She’s suing to stay an arbitration proceeding over the money dispute and asking her divorce judge to resolve the matter.
Joesph Cipolla, the firm’s managing director noted that an appeals court affirmed the fees and said “Mrs. Trafelet is simply attempting to avoid her financial obligation.”
Lara’s attorney in the Cipolla suit said, “Our legal documents speak for themselves and this issue will be ultimately decided in a court of law.”
Remy and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
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