Chapter 8 - Ninety-one thousand six hundred dollars
Forensic accountant David Park reviewed Ellison Built Interiors and our marital accounts.
Company:
Residential and boutique-commercial renovation.
Revenue prior year:
$3.9 million.
Employees:
Eighteen.
Lucas owned:
80%.
His longtime project manager Eric Dawson owned 20%.
Company formed during marriage.
My marital interest would be evaluated in divorce even though I was not member.
Then Valerie.
Payments from company to Shaw Creative Studio:
$91,600 over ten months.
Was it all stolen?
No.
David found legitimate work.
Project presentations.
Furniture specifications.
Client renderings.
Marketing photography.
Design consultations.
Reasonable supported value:
Approximately $46,800.
Then gray area:
$19,700.
Services existed but documentation weak or rates substantially above prior vendors.
Then clearly personal/questionable:
$25,100.
Examples:
Payment labeled “client lodging coordination” reimbursed Valerie’s apartment rent for two months.
“Design travel” included weekend where no client event occurred.
One “creative retainer” paid the week Lucas and Valerie stayed at a resort.
Could there be business meetings too?
Some.
David would not label every dollar affair spending.
Separate marital-credit-card charges clearly tied to affair:
$13,860.
Hotels.
Restaurants.
Jewelry.
Flights.
No gambling.
No secret offshore accounts.
No million-dollar theft.
Then company cash position.
Not great.
Lucas had used a $180,000 business line of credit to cover working capital.
Why?
One commercial client delayed payment.
Material costs.
Normal business issues.
The $25,100 questionable Valerie spending mattered, but did not single-handedly threaten company.
Then house.
Value:
About $728,000.
Mortgage:
$349,000.
Equity before costs:
Roughly $379,000.
Retirement:
Mine $194,000.
Lucas $268,000.
Joint brokerage/savings:
$116,000.
Then a document in Lucas’s personal folder.
Proposed Marital Settlement Framework.
Draft.
Not signed.
Terms:
I receive house subject to mortgage.
Lucas keeps company.
Retirement “each keeps own.”
Joint custody equal time.
Each waives claims for marital dissipation before separation.
No business forensic audit.
At first glance:
I get house.
Sounds generous.
Then David calculated.
Company preliminary marital value:
Potentially $520,000–$680,000 before neutral valuation.
Lucas’s retirement larger.
Waiving audit erased affair/company payment disputes.
House equity alone did not compensate.
The draft was favorable to Lucas.
Could he propose that lawfully?
Of course.
People propose unfair settlements every day.
May you like
The question was:
What did he intend to use as leverage to make me sign?
