Details Surface in Phil Ivey Divorce Settlement Case
According to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, poker pro Phil Ivey has filed a response to the petition of his ex-wife, Luciaetta, who discovered that Ivey donated money to the judge assigned to their 2009 divorce case.
In November, Luciaetta Ivey filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court claiming that a $5,000 contribution was made by Phil Ivey to Family Court Judge Bill Gonzalez three months after the couple's divorce was granted. Luciaetta also alleged in the petition that her ex-husband ceased paying spousal support in April 2011, around the same time the Full Tilt Poker domain name was seized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Supreme Court found that Luciaetta Ivey had raised issues of "arguable merit" in the case and gave Phil Ivey 30 days to answer her petition.
In Phil Ivey's response, attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld gave details of the divorce settlement, which showed that alimony for Luciaetta was taken from money Phil Ivey received from Tiltware, LLC, the parent company of Full Tilt Poker. However, if the payments from Tiltware ended, Luciaetta's alimony would cease, according to the response from Phil Ivey's attorneys.
According to Ivey, his ex-wife received a purse collection worth over $1.2 million and jewelry valued at over $1 million, along with her car, her life insurance policy, a downpayment for a new residence, and several other assets. Phil Ivey also accepted around $170,000 in credit-card debt and over $15.1 million “in gambling and other debt,” as part of the divorce settlement.
"Luciaetta ended up with no debt, with millions of dollars worth of property, and with specific unambiguous alimony provisions," Phil Ivey's attorneys said in the response.
Luciaetta Ivey told the Review-Journal last month that she was "blindsided" and "very disgusted" when she discovered that her husband had contributed money to Gonzalez's re-election campaign on April 17, 2010. Ivey didn't contribute to any other Family Court Judge, which led Luciaetta to conclude that there was bias involved in the settlement.
Luciaetta Ivey filed a motion in August to disqualify Judge Gonzalez from further proceedings. Phil Ivey opposed the motion and Chief District Judge Jennifer Togliatti denied the motion in September. Luciaetta Ivey then brought the matter before the Nevada Supreme Court.
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