Forum > Article/Media Counterpoint
Wealthy Toronto lawyer and his Russian wife in a "cemetery of culture"
Lily:
“I don’t cheat, I change the game.”
That’s a claim made in a recent radio ad by Canada’s self-styled tax fighter Philippe DioGuardi, who with his father and law partner, Paul, presents a unified force against the “wolves” of the Canada Revenue Agency.
A Star investigation reveals Philippe has been fighting his own battles on four fronts: Paul says Philippe over-drew $2 million from their firm; his estranged wife wants spousal support of $25,000 a month; Ontario’s legal regulator is investigating nine complaints against him; and the tax lawyer has only recently settled his own $147,000 debt to the CRA.
DioGuardi, who says he has helped more than 8,500 clients over his career, traces some of his woes to the “lavish lifestyle” of the woman he met and married in Russia in 2003. DioGuardi’s affidavit filed in his divorce proceedings says wife Elena DioGuardi’s lifestyle included “countless plastic surgeries,” jewellery, luxury vehicles, fur coats and trips abroad.
He also claims that Elena had been married twice before, including to a wealthy 70-year-old Californian whom she met through her profile on multiple “Russian bride” solicitation websites.
In an interview with the Star, Elena DioGuardi took exception to her husband’s claims.
“He’s saying I’m a mail-order bride, and I’m going to say absolutely a different story,” said Elena, whose Facebook page includes numerous revealing glamour shots of herself. “He’s going to do anything or say anything just to make me feel bad or make me look stupid in front of the judge.”
Philippe DioGuardi has built his high-octane career as an “adversarial” tax lawyer through a slick multi-million-dollar, multimedia ad campaign, in which CRA officers are portrayed as shady characters in dark sunglasses. One commercial, posted on YouTube, features a tax agent being shot with paintballs in the face and chest, while a voiceover says, “At the first sign of tax trouble, fire back.”
A recent DioGuardi radio ad says the CRA plays “Mr. Nice Guy to get details about your bank account and your house, and then sends in the wolves to seize your money and your assets.”
Some details of DioGuardi’s financial problems are contained in divorce proceedings ongoing in a Toronto court. Philippe and Elena DioGuardi began divorce proceedings in 2012. Both sides have provided information that is now in the public domain.
Financial documents submitted by DioGuardi show that between the years 2009 and 2012, the firm had annual revenues of about $6 million, and spent about $2 million a year on advertising and marketing.
By 2012, DioGuardi’s overdrawing from his law firm account and marital problems prompted his father to characterize the situation as a “crisis.” The elder DioGuardi was forced to come out of retirement to take control of the firm they founded more than 10 years ago, change the signing authorities over the firm’s bank accounts, and put his son on a strict budget.
In a handwritten letter labelled “Demand” dated Sept. 30, 2012, Paul tells Philippe he is aware that “you are having significant marital problems” and “you are grossly overdrawing on your monthly draws from the DioGuardi Tax Law firm.”
The situation has “reached a crisis point,” the elder DioGuardi writes. “If these matters are not attended to promptly, I shall have to remove you as one of the executors of my and your mother’s will, and engage legal counsel to protect my rights. Please don’t make me take this step.”
The letter is signed: “Your Father.”
Total amount overdrawn by the son: more than $2 million.
In a desperate effort to “appease Elena,” DioGuardi explains in his court affidavit, he purchased a condo and a Mercedes-Benz for her in Russia, spent more than $200,000 on furs, $200,000 on jewellery and $20,000 on designer handbags, as well as paying for “countless plastic surgeries.”
“I naively did all of this for many years thinking that I could somehow buy a real ‘marriage’ relationship with Elena,” DioGuardi says in his affidavit filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. “I did so in a desperate attempt to please Elena, or at least abate her anger and frigidity towards me.”
a letter to the Star, Philippe blames his cash-flow problems on his wife’s demands and his commitments to his three children from a previous marriage. He says he was responsible for putting two children through university, while his youngest son, who is autistic, requires “extraordinary financial support.”
The father-son lawyers told the Star in their letter that an arrangement has been made for Philippe to repay the funds. The lawyers say the $2 million came from “owners’ equity” in the firm. As part of Philippe’s compensation, he was entitled to withdraw funds. Over a 10-year period, he took $2 million more than allowed.
In his court affidavit, DioGuardi says his previous wife “abandoned” him and his three children years ago, leaving him with the responsibility of raising them and putting them through school.
Elena DioGuardi told the Star she first met Philippe at a bookstore in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the summer of 2001, when she accidentally stepped on his toes while buying “English literature.”
Philippe’s family, including his father, attended their wedding in St. Petersburg two years later, she said.
In his court affidavit, Philippe says he spent the next five years trying to get Elena to join him in Canada, but that she preferred St. Petersburg to Toronto, which she considered a “cemetery” of culture.
DioGuardi, 53, portrays Elena, 40, as an angry, frigid gold-digger with a “violent temper” who assaulted his new girlfriend, Sofia Smolicov, 33, and damaged both her Mercedes-Benz and his Porsche Cayenne SUV.
Elena was charged by York Regional Police in November 2012 with assault and mischief, after an altercation with Smolicov. In a police report, Smolicov alleges that Elena showed up at her home in Maple and accused her of having an affair with DioGuardi.
When Smolicov tried to usher her out, Elena allegedly ripped a necklace off her, then swung her purse at Smolicov’s head. Once out on the front porch, Smolicov claims, Elena kicked the door, then picked up a flower pot from the porch and heaved it at a white Mercedes parked in the driveway.
DioGuardi also accused Elena of smashing a rear window of his Porsche Cayenne, after he suggested she move out of the luxury Bellair Ave. condo in the heart of Yorkville they previously shared and for which he continues to pay rent of $5,000 per month. Elena denies the accusation, saying she did not even know Philippe owned a Porsche, only that he owned a Cadillac and a Corvette.
And while DioGuardi claims in his affidavit that his wife has a “very violent temper,” Elena says in her court filings that she had to hire a bodyguard and driver after receiving threats from one of DioGuardi’s three children. She also says her marriage began to disintegrate because DioGuardi “started a relationship with a woman who worked for him” around the same time he married Elena.
In his court filings, DioGuardi denies the allegation.
Huge discrepancies exist in the claims Philippe and Elena make as to the value of property in each other’s possession.
Philippe claims in court documents that his wife’s fur coat collection is worth more than $200,000. Elena claims some of the coats were fake fur purchased from Russian websites, and puts the value of the collection at only $7,000.
In January 2014, the fur coat fight intensified when DioGuardi’s lawyers asked that arrangements be made for him to collect his own wolf-fur coat and a beaver-fur coat from the Bellair Ave. condo. Elena claims Philippe had already taken them when she was away in Russia burying her mother, who had died of cancer.
The blue mink that Philippe claims is worth $25,000 was purchased for $500, repaired at Holt Renfrew and “they added a Holt Renfrew label,” Elena’s court filings state.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/02/04/tax-fighter-philippe-dioguardi-has-serious-battles-of-his-own.html
ML:
If you want to see the ante upped, google the divorce of couple who used to own the LA Dodgers.
AC:
Wow! What a nice woman... :rolleyes:
excerpt
DioGuardi, 53, portrays Elena, 40, as an angry, frigid gold-digger with a “violent temper” who assaulted his new girlfriend, Sofia Smolicov, 33, and damaged both her Mercedes-Benz and his Porsche Cayenne SUV.
Elena was charged by York Regional Police in November 2012 with assault and mischief, after an altercation with Smolicov. In a police report, Smolicov alleges that Elena showed up at her home in Maple and accused her of having an affair with DioGuardi.
When Smolicov tried to usher her out, Elena allegedly ripped a necklace off her, then swung her purse at Smolicov’s head. Once out on the front porch, Smolicov claims, Elena kicked the door, then picked up a flower pot from the porch and heaved it at a white Mercedes parked in the driveway.
DioGuardi also accused Elena of smashing a rear window of his Porsche Cayenne, after he suggested she move out of the luxury Bellair Ave. condo in the heart of Yorkville they previously shared and for which he continues to pay rent of $5,000 per month. Elena denies the accusation, saying she did not even know Philippe owned a Porsche, only that he owned a Cadillac and a Corvette."
Lily:
--- Quote from: ML on February 04, 2015, 10:06:35 PM --- the ante upped
--- End quote ---
what is that please?
Gator:
--- Quote from: AC on February 04, 2015, 10:08:54 PM ---Wow! What a nice woman... :rolleyes:
--- End quote ---
She might win the prize for the Suka of the Year.
Based on her name, this man's new girl friend is also a RW.
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