'Mini Madoff' Starr Pleads Guilty to $50 Million Fraud
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Financial adviser to the stars Kenneth I. Starr, Starr & Co. pled guilty before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Friday to ripping off $50 million from A-listers including Wesley Snipes, Sylvester Stallone, Uma Thurman, Nora Ephron and Al Pacino.
The 66-year-old Starr told the judge he improperly used his clients' money for his own purposes. His attorney, Flora Edwards, told the court: "He's committed a horrendous error in judgement. This was truly a horrendous error. I don't think it was greed. He made a real bad mistake, and he's deeply sorry for it."
The three counts that Starr pled guilty to - wire fraud, money laundering and adviser fraud - carry a sentence of up to 12 years. He still faces 20 additional counts and charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Preet Bharara said: "Kenneth Starr is a tale of fiction and fraud, in which he played the role of legitimate investment adviser to a cast of unsuspecting victims."
When prosecutors arrested Starr on May 27, they found him hiding in a closet of his $7.5 million Upper East Side condominium, which the government has since seized. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Starr's fourth wife, former Scores stripper Diane Passage, failed to show up for her husband's court appearance on Friday. Her lawyer, Giovanni DiStefano, told The New York Post Passage needed to look after her 12-year-old son. A recent Vanity Fair feature on Starr and his misdeeds paints the picture of a man who knew how to tell his celebrity clients what they wanted to hear about the far reaches of their wealth, and whose own personal greed continued to grow as he remarried.
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Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.