Manhattan socialite Lara Trafelet sues accounting firm for 'outrageous' $75,000-a-week divorce costs
A Manhattan socialite instructed accountants to squeeze everything they could from her estranged husband - then balked at the fee.
Lara Schmidt Trafelet is locked in a bitter divorce battle with top hedge fund manager Remy White Trafelet, 48, over their $200 million fortune.
The enraged wife instructed forensic accountants at Cipolla & Co to 'kick him between his legs and bring him to his knees' last July.
But the 49-year-old was horrified by the 'outrageous' $75,000-a-week bill totaling $4.2 million and sued the firm claiming it was excessive.
Lara Schmidt Trafelet (left) is locked in a bitter divorce battle with top hedge fund manager Remy White Trafelet, 48, (center) over their $200 million fortune
Cipolla & Co argued the couple's finances were so complicated and their spending so extravagant that it took a team working around the clock to untangle them.
The firm even set up a dedicated 'war room' in its offices after she told them to 'take the most aggressive stance possible regardless of cost', according to the NY Post.
Cipolla & Co demands she pay $2.7 million in fees that she has refused to hand over since getting the bill, and her action was just to avoid her financial obligation.
Ms Trafelet claimed she couldn't afford the fees as the 'non-monied, unemployed spouse in a hotly contested divorce action'.
Accountants toiled to make sense of Mr Trafelet's 'multi-layered complex web of business entities' and the couple's luxury lifestyle.
'The Trafelet marital lifestyle was opulent with annual spending in excess of $16.2 million,' Cipolla lawyer David Mair said at an arbitration hearing.
He said they had to analyze $600 million in transactions from 13 bank accounts over the course of the 18-year marriage to get the best deal for Ms Trafelet.
The couple own six properties including a $15 million Park Avenue apartment and a $10 million Glen Head, Long Island, summer home.
They also have a grouse-hunting estate in Scotland and a quail farm in Georgia.
Trafelet made his fortune managing hedge fund Trafalet & Company, worth $5.8bn at its peak in 2006. But now the two are locked in a bitter divorce which includes the battle over their three children (pictured)
Other luxuries the couple enjoyed included a personal trainer, chauffeur, assistant, and private chef that all came out of Mr Trafelet's earnings.
There was also a private jet for 'ultra-luxury vacations that cost as much as $400,000 in a single year', Mr Mair said.
The firm claimed its hard work paid off and the huge fees were well-earned as it boosted her interim alimony from $17,000 to $45,000 a month.
Ms Trafelet wants the dispute decided by her divorce judge and is trying to get the arbitration proceedings stayed, despite an appeals court already affirming the fees.
'Our legal documents speak for themselves and this issue will be ultimately decided in a court of law,' he lawyers said.
Ms Trafelet balked at the bill despite winning a record $4.1 million war chest from her estranged husband to pay for legal fees in the divorce battle.
The eye-watering amount is made up of an initial award of $600,000 followed by a second of $3.5million - believed to be the largest professional fee ever awarded in a New York state marriage case.
New York divorce law allows courts to order the richer spouse to pay for their partner's lawyers and experts to make the legal process a fair fight.
Until now, the largest sum awarded in professional fees was less than $1m.
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ShareTrafelet, 48, made his fortune managing a hedge fund, Trafelet & Company, worth $5.8bn at its peak in 2006.
He enjoyed holidays with his wife and children on the billionaire's playground of Fisher Island and were prominent on the monied Manhattan social scene.
Now the couple has split, Mrs Trafalet is living in the marital home on Park Avenue, while her husband stays at one of his other houses, Mrs Trafalet's attorney, Laurie McPherson, said.
He claimed Mr Trafalet was 'angry and litigious' and making the divorce as 'difficult' as he could.
The lawyer told DailyMail.com that the couple's three children spend the majority of their time with their mother, though they too have been the subject of the expensive legal battle.
'The husband is in our view incredibly angry and litigious, and is pursuing a real scorched earth tactic,' said McPherson.
'He has pressed our client in any way he possibly can, and that exerts undue pressure on her. And it's engendered a lot of litigation and a lot of fees. The fees have well exceeded the awards, I can tell you that.
The New York money man and his socialite wife own a $7.4million luxury apartment on Park Avenue, one of New York City's most desirable streets
'From our view, the husband has made this far more difficult than it should be, and he shows no sign of stopping. He looks for every opportunity, it seems, to force more litigation.'
She added: 'The estate is worth hundreds of millions, well more than two hundred. It is a big case, there's a lot of moving pieces, there's a lot of assets that are on the table.'
At the height of his company's success Mr Trafelet splurged company money on his staff, treating about 100 of his employees to a luxurious weekend at a five-star hotel in Venice with Murano glass chandeliers and a view of the 17th-century basilica.
Though the 2008 financial crisis slashed the value of Trafelet & Company in half, his fund is thought to have generated him hundreds of millions of dollars, and after several years of dormancy, reopened for new investors in 2014.
The Trafelets were married in 2000 in Ohio. At the time his wife was working as director of sales for Circline Inc., a company selling art and antiques online.
Mr Trafelet is now working as CEO of Florida citrus fruit giant Alico, a job which earns him a base salary of $400,000 as well as 300,000 stock options, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
In his judgment last month, Judge Frank P Nervo also noted a '$150 million trust' was part of the disputed assets in the divorce.
A 2017 judgment on aspects of the divorce case said the trust contained '40 per cent of husband's business interests', including 'marital property, and their assets appreciated during the marriage in step with the successful growth of husband's businesses'.
Judge Nervo awarded the additional $3.5 million advance last month after Ms Trafelet highlighted the large costs involved in unpicking the web of companies, property deals and trusts owned or administered by her husband.
The couple also owns a $4.8 million colonial style property in exclusive Glen Head, Long Island
A legal source close to the case said the granting of 'interim' fees for Ms Trafelet means that if the money runs out, she can ask the court to award even more cash for professional fees.
'The court in this case recognized that high stakes, scorched earth litigation needs to be funded equally if not more,' said the source.
The source disclosed that in this case Ms Trafelet will likely spend more than the husband on legal fees, because the husband has created a financial web of hedge funds, different companies and partnerships, LLCs and different real estate and licensing agreements between homes.
'The wife had no clue, so she needs to hire a forensic accountant, who then needs to go through ten years of financials, and that's really expensive,' the source added.
'The interim fees award is a groundbreaking decision. Everybody on the matrimonial bar is talking about it, even judges are talking about it.'
McPherson of The McPherson Firm is Ms Trafelet's third lawyer.
Her previous counsel who filed the motion requesting $3.5 million in fees, Stuart Slotnick of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, said such fees are awarded to prevent one party 'bullying' another.
'Divorce is a very emotional process and in high net worth divorces the parties have the resources to protect their interests because they have access to significant funds,' said Slotnick.
'The law protects non-monied spouses from being bullied by their soon-to-be ex-spouse, when that person has all the money.
'The courts want to ensure that the non-monied parties have ample resources to fight an equal fight.'
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