Missing Millionaire's Wife Wants to Sell Couple's Mansion and Yacht
The couple's house is valued at $5 million, the yacht is valued at $2.1 million
July 4, 2012— -- Missing millionaire Guma Aguiar's wife has filed a motion for permission to sell the couple's mansion and yacht, which are valued at $7.1 million.
Though his body has not been found and questions have arisen about whether Aguiar may, in fact, be alive, his wife's attorney wrote in the filing obtained by ABCNews.com that she "must face the possibility that she will never see Guma again."
Aguiar, 35, was last seen on June 19 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Early the next morning, his 31-foot fishing boat washed up on a Fort Lauderdale beach with the engine running and lights on, but with no sign of its Brazilian-born owner.
Aguiar's mother Ellen Aguiar and wife Jamie Aguiar are embroiled in a nasty legal fight for control of his assets, valued at over $100 million.
At a hearing on Tuesday, a Florida judge appointed Northern Trust, a wealth management company, with conservatorship over all of Aguiar's trust assets. Florida attorney Thomas Panza was appointed to manage all of Aguiar's non-trust assets and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler was appointed conservator over all litigation.
"Jamie has concluded that she must face the possibility that she may never see Guma again and, accordingly, must be frugal to preserve the family fortune to the greatest extent possible," Jamie Aguiar's attorney William Scherer wrote in the motion.
The couple's Fort Lauderdale house is valued at $5 million and their 75-foot Lazzara boat "The Zion" is valued at $2.1 million, according to court documents.
Guma and Jamie Aguiar own the house and boat together, so the assets are not the property of the conservator, but Jamie Aguiar cannot sever her interest from the house or boat from Guma's interest without consent from the court and an order from the court granting her permission.
"Both the home and the boat are far too large and expensive for Jamie to maintain and keeping them would not be conducive to Jamie's goal for conserving funds," Scherer wrote. "Further, the recent media attention surrounding this case has attracted a number of strangers who are constantly near the home, creating a real fear for Jamie that she and her children are in danger. As such, she wants to sell the home and the boat in an attempt to obtain financial and emotional peace of mind."
Jamie Aguiar wants to move into a smaller home that is easier to manage financially, according to the filing. Her husband's potential share of any proceeds from a sale would be held in trust "pending his return" or "if he is deemed deceased, can then be released to Jamie."
"With Guma gone, Jamie must conserve what remains of the fortune they once had which has been virtually cut in half due to Guma's tumultuous litigation with his uncle and his exorbitant spending while he was ill," Scherer wrote.
Aguiar's disappearance has triggered a legal melodrama.
Jamie Aguiar and her mother-in-law Ellen Aguiar have insulted each other through their legal filings, calling each other liars and greedy and uncaring about the man who is missing.
Aguiar's uncle Thomas Kaplan, who was tangled up in law suits with the missing millionaire, has suggested that he is alive and has asked the court preserve any electronic data related to Aguiar's disappearance, including any communication between Guma and Ellen Aguiar.
Aguiar has said that he feared that his uncle was trying to kill him because of their business dispute. In a 2010 court document, Kaplan's legal team disputed those accusations.
"Aguiar's psychosis manifested itself in both grandiose and paranoid delusions," a court document from 2010 reads. "With respect to his paranoid delusions, Aguiar has stated on multiple occasions that Kaplan was trying to kill him. Aguiar believes that he has been poisoned, the he was shot in the back from a helicopter, that snipers have been following him and that the medical staff at an Israeli hospital were injecting him with poison in order to kill him."