Family Law

Dodger Divorce Gets More Contentious

By ckramer

As soon as news of the divorce became public, the split between Los Angeles Dodgers owners Jamie and Frank McCourt promised to be complicated and contentious, with Dodgers fans feeling nervous about the focus that these team owners would be able to keep on the team.

Since the beginning of the divorce proceedings, ownership of the Dodgers has been the most significant contentious point between the former power couple. Frank McCourt has claimed to be the sole owner of the team, while Jamie McCourt argues that they each have an equal share in it.

Well, these predictions are coming true, as the McCourt divorce and the battle over ownership of the baseball franchise have risen to new levels of heated argument and accusation.

In the divorce case?s latest twist, Jamie McCourt has now accused Frank of attempting to understate his worth by hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jamie McCourt?s assertion was contained in a state court filing recently submitted by her attorney. The claim about Frank came in response to his previous claim that he has been in what the story calls “a tight cash position and unable to provide the level of financial support” that Jamie McCourt has been seeking in the divorce arrangement.

According to the court filing, Jamie claimed that in September of 2008 Frank?s personal financial statement showed his net worth to be $834.9 million. Last June, she claims, a follow-up personal financial statement show that his net worth had declined to $163.4 million. According to Jamie?s side of the story, this second statement with the lower figure was put together following the couple?s separation, and that its figures were “fabricated” via “blatant balance sheet manipulations.” The idea being, in her mind, that it would show him to be worth far less than he was.

Jamie McCourt?s filing also made the claim that the “net equity value” of Frank?s various ventures was more that $2 billion, according to a LA Times story.

Another piece of evidence that Jamie and her lawyers presented to support her accusation of fudged numbers was a private placement memorandum from May of 2009 in which Frank seemed to propose selling a share in the Dodgers “as part of the creation of a global sports enterprise.”

This global sports enterprise would supposedly own the Dodgers as well as Chinese and English sports franchises. The memo offered a 7 percent stake in the enterprise for $150 million, and it showed that it was presented to a Chinese industrial and financial conglomerate called Citic Group.

There were additional claims in Jamie McCourt?s court filing, which included details claiming the couple received $2.3 million in payouts per month from their various enterprises, and that this was largely tax free based on the manner by which Frank McCourt lived “off cash from lines of credit and loan proceeds, which wouldn’t immediately be taxable.”

One of Frank McCourt?s attorneys called Jamie?s filing “astonishing” and “a scorched-earth spin campaign designed to harm the reputation and livelihood of others.”

Whatever the truth, sports fans are guaranteed a competition in the owner?s box that is every bit as heated as what takes place down on the field.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on March 03, 2010 (boomark / email).