On behalf of Cobert, Haber & Haber Attorneys at Law posted in Divorce on Thursday, January 28, 2016.
A woman in New York recently filed a claim against her husband alleging that he fraudulently divorced her in secret just months after they were married in an apparent attempt to protect his assets.
Married in 1994 after meeting at a mutual friend’s home, the woman claims that she and her husband – who is 30 years her senior – lived together as man and wife for 20 years, raising a son together and splitting their time between homes in New York and France. According to a report by the New York Post, their Midtown condo alone may be worth roughly $1.4 million.
While the woman allegedly always believed the marriage to be valid, she now claims that her husband secretly filed for divorce in the Dominican Republic a mere four months after the wedding. Importantly, the couple didn’t live in the Dominican Republic, nor was the divorce ever registered in New York.
What tipped her off?
It wasn’t until recently when a tax bill arrived for their Manhattan home and her name was not on it that she became suspicious of her husband. After investigating into the matter, she found out that her husband tried to remove her from the deed using the Dominican divorce as evidence, according to her court documents.
In her filings, she states she “has no recollection of [giving] any authorization to anyone to proceed with a divorce, or even thinking about divorce from the man she had just recently married.” And, if she did give consent, she was “impaired, drugged or misled” into doing so.
While it remains to be seen how the court will handle the situation, if the allegations are proven true, things will likely not turn out how the husband originally planned.
