$100M Divorce Is Made for Tabs

He lost his share of settlement in Ponzi scheme

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff is messing up divorce settlements now, too. A husband wants his wife to give him back millions of dollars because he lost his share of their combined wealth in Madoff's Ponzi scheme, reports the New York Times . Steven Simkin and Laura Blank split up in 2006 and divvied up $13.2 million in assets. She took hers in cash, while he kept his under the care of Madoff. When Madoff's scheme went poof, Simkin filed papers to revise their settlement. His wife refused, and the matter has now reached New York state's highest court. More»

Deferred stock payments complicate settlements

(NEWSER) - Wall Street’s new post-crisis pay structures are making divorce a complicated proposition for many bankers, traders, and executives. To encourage long-term thinking, many bonuses are now composed largely of stock that can’t be converted to cash for years. It’s “throwing a massive monkey wrench into the works of family law,” one compensation consultant tells Bloomberg . More»

Veronica vows to 'make things messy' if demands not met

(NEWSER) - Silvio Berlusconi's string of sex scandals may leave him saddled with one of the most expensive divorce settlements in human history. His estranged wife, Veronica Lario—who announced she was leaving the "ridiculous" Italian leader earlier this year after his bimbo eruptions—is seeking a divorce settlement of $5.3 million a month, Bloomberg reports. That's even more than Princess Diana demanded. More»

(NEWSER) - Holy Monty Python. John Cleese has a whopping $20 million check to write in a California divorce settlement, and he's not happy about it. “What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine," grumbled the 70-year-old star. American psychotherapist Faye Eichelberger, married to Cleese for 16 years, gets $12 million in cash, an apartment in New York, a house in London, and a million bucks a year for seven years, reports the Telegraph. More»

Divorce expected to be finalized today

(NEWSER) - The contentious divorce between Swedish countess Marie Douglas-David and Internet mogul George David is expected to be settled today, reports the New York Post. Douglas-David will have to make do with about $55 million, and she won’t get the $16 million penthouse or $1.5 million earrings she wanted. The mudslinging proceedings first made headlines in March, when Douglas-David estimated her weekly expenses at at least $53,000. Elsewhere: More»