Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Midday update.

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This morning was a solid win for Frank, as his attorney, Steve Susman, elicited a great deal of testimony from Leah Bishop showing Jamie's understanding of the Massachusetts agreement. Even after the McCourts' move to Los Angeles, Jamie was concerned about her assets' safety if Frank borrowed on them to pay business expenses. It was also revealed that Frank had taken at least $100 million out of the Dodgers assets for Jamie's use.

Leah Bishop testified that Jamie understood the MPA to segregate the couple's assets, and that she had intended to do so. Later, as the marriage was in some stage of disintegration, Jamie began to express a concern that "everything in Boston was to be held jointly," and that she was "really clear on what the distributions were supposed to be." And while Frank explored the concept of making all the assets community property--even going as far to have Bishop draw up the documents--he never advanced past the consideration stage.

Susman asked Bishop pointedly, "if Frank had already agreed to community property, why (did you) give her family law lawyers' numbers?" He also asked her that, given the body text of the MPA, wouldn't she have raised an alarm if the California Exhibit A been attached? Jamie never mentioned an erroneous Exhibit A.

In one document displayed from December 2007, Jamie asked Leah, "Is there anything I have signed to date that I should be regretting?" Bishop replied, "Don't stress about any of this. Eat a spring roll and be merry."

The afternoon won't likely be as favorable to Frank. After Susman finishes with Bishop, which is expected to take an hour--David Boies will get first crack at Frank.
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Sent via BlackBerry

6 comments:

  1. If the McCourts took money out of the Dodgers to pay for personal expenses, why wouldn't the IRS be inovled a la Leona Helmsley?

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  2. Josh,

    I love the gory detail of the testimony and court procedings. Keep it up.

    And with respect to the first comment above re the IRS, I think that the answer is that the McCourts were better advised.

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  3. @anon@August 31, 2010 4:55 PM -

    this $100M was probably reference to the legal manoeuver of taking out a loan against future ticket sales that we've touched on before.

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  4. for anon@4:55pm, some more thoughts from WSJ's Wealth Blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/08/31/how-to-shield-assets-like-the-rich/

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  5. Give it up Frank and Jamie and sell the team to a worthy owner who cares about winning and our fans...Mark Cuban??

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  6. Very informative divorce settlement. I’m delighted I came across it. I’ll be back down the track to check out other posts.

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