Life in the Bay Area is expensive. That goes hand in hand with the high entrepreneurial spirit that permeates the region. The pace tends to move fast and assets can grow so fast that they outstrip any financial plans that may exist for a couple.
Such circumstances can pose unique challenges in the event a couple decides to divorce. Assessment of assets and debts become complex. Determinations need to be made that could well affect the standard of living that each party enjoys as they work to get on with their lives. Emotions tend to get in the way, which is why it’s always best to have the benefit of experienced legal counsel.
What can happen when passion rules may be evidenced by a high-asset divorce case out of Boston. It’s one that even the judge has called “unnerving” and “bizarre.”
At issue in one recent proceeding was the division of some $4 million — all that apparently is left of assets that were once estimated at well over $25 million. At the end of the hearing, the judge awarded most of what was at stake to the wife.
Central figures in the dispute are one-time convenience store businessman Christy Mihos and his wife, Andrea. Mihos sold his business empire in 2009. Since then he has mounted two failed runs for Massachusetts governor, apparently spending much of his own wealth in doing so.
That proved to be the crux of the dispute over whatever wealth remains. Attorneys for Andrea Mihos said that her husband made his runs for office over the objections of the family and on a pledge that he wouldn’t use personal funds. But they say he didn’t live up to his word and squandered assets on politics and prostitutes.
In granting the divorce and assigning assets, the Associated Press reported, the judge agreed and said that Mihos had deceived his family and allowed his impulses and ego to lead him into squandering his fortune.
Source: Boston.CBSLocal.com, “Divorce Judge Awards Most Of Christy Mihos’ Fortune To Wife,” Beth Germano, Nov. 6, 2013