Shortly after meeting each other at a friend’s house, a man and woman were married in New York in 1994. Last November, the woman was concerned because her name wasn’t on a tax bill for a one-bedroom Manhattan condo she thought the couple owned. A lawyer was hired to investigate and what he found out truly shocked her. Her husband had filed for divorce four short months after they wed. He filed for divorce in the Dominican Republic and kept it a secret.
The woman was an Italian literature professor at Boston College when the two met, but she quickly gave it up to be with her new husband. She said, “He was absolutely charming, and despite our age difference, it was love at first sight.” When the man filed for divorce, though, he told the authorities in the Dominican Republic that living with his wife was “unbearable.” Both sides were allegedly represented in the divorce by attorneys the man had hired.
The woman says the divorce is not legal — not here or in the Dominican Republic. She said that the divorce has to be published in a newspaper according to Dominican law. She believes her husband’s greed was behind his actions. The court papers filed in New York say her husband is “using an illegal and fraudulent divorce . . . to rob her.”
The woman said the man wants to sell the condo to his adult daughter, who resides in Rome. The condo would sell for around $1.4 million today.
High asset divorces can be very emotional and it can take years to sort through everything. If you believe your spouse has done something illegal regarding your marriage, don’t hesitate to speak with an experienced divorce attorney so you know your rights.
Source: New York Post, “Husband secretly divorced wife after wedding ‘to protect assets’,” Kathianne Boniello, Jan. 24, 2016