On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C. posted in Divorce on Thursday, June 21, 2012
St. Louis Cardinals fans are likely to join most other fans of baseball teams in agreeing that two of the worst owners in the history of the sport were Frank and Jamie McCourt. The pair’s widely reported indulgent lifestyle and bitter, headline-producing divorce drove the storied team into bankruptcy and made it fodder for talk-show hosts’ jokes.
The divorce was finally settled last fall, with Jamie receiving $131 million and Frank forced to sell the team he said he loved. Frank wound up selling the team for an unprecedented $2.1 billion, making him richer than ever and making it appear to many that Jamie might’ve settled too soon and for too little.
Others would contend that $131 million isn’t exactly chump change and that by settling, Jamie ended a protracted fight that had undoubtedly embarrassed her, her former husband and their children.
But Jamie’s settlement pales in comparison to some others listed in a recent media article.
If you add $50 million-plus to the McCourt settlement, you’ll arrive at the figure Maya Polsky agreed to in her divorce from Ukrainian energy mogul Michael Polsky. In 2006, she got half of what the couple had accumulated since arriving in the United States 30 years earlier: $184 million.
The settlement arrived at between Canadian diamond magnate Chuck Fipke and his wife, Marlene, is estimated to be Canada’s largest ever: $200 million. It included $120 million in cash and a 20 percent share of the famous Ekati Diamond Mine.
Three years ago, Las Vegas gambling tycoon Steve Wynn ran up a divorce settlement tab of $740 million with his former wife, Elaine.
Add in there media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He paid out $1.7 billion to his wife of 32 years when they divorced in 1999. A little over two weeks later, he married a woman 38 years younger than he is. He’s now 81 years old and she’s 43.
Source: Washington Times, “World’s most expensive divorces all mean business,” June 19, 2012