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It seems Teresa Giudice isn’t the only Real Housewife of New Jersey star facing major financial troubles! A new report states that Twitterholic, Jacqueline Laurita and her husband Chris Laurita were recently named in an $8M lawsuit for “improperly using funds and assets” from their company Signature Apparel.
RadarOnline is reporting that Chris and his brother Joseph formed Signature Apparel Group (a company that once owned brands such as Rocawear and Eve’s Fetish) in 2005 and “drained the company” amassing a debt of $7,804,227 which was used to “support their luxurious lifestyle”!
According to documents the company banked more than $250 million between 2005 and 2009, but then surprisingly declared bankruptcy in September 2009, and just like their friend Teresa, someone started complaining that the bankruptcy petition might just be fraudulent. The suspicious bankruptcy filing prompted the debtor “to come forward with the complaint”, claiming company monies were “misused,” RadarOnline reveals.
Chris and Joseph “drained the Company of all its funds and assets in order to support their families’ increasingly opulent lifestyle of private jets, limousines, extravagant parties, premium automobiles, designer clothing, ostentatious home furnishings and lavish vacations,” the complaint filed November 2, 2010 alleges. “Signature’s assets were misused to make outright and unjustified payments to Laurita family members, and to fund the operations of the Laurita brothers’ other companies and business ventures.”
So what exactly did the Lauritas spend all that money on? Well, according to the documents, here’s the breakdown:
- Nearly $2 million in credit card payments for the Laurity Family, including payments to more than 40 bank accounts
- At least $331,637 for payments on no less than eleven leased cars, including a Bentley and a Maserati
- At least $284,793 in airline travel expenses for the Laurita Family
- At least $145,894 for private airplane rentals for the Laurita Family
- At least $7,280 for travel agent expenses for the Laurita Family
- At least $755,184 to defendant Christopher Laurita for undocumented or insufficiently documented reasons
- At least $784,160 of disbursements directed by the Laurita Director Defendants (Chris and Joseph) to unknown recipients, without any documentation whatsoever
Even worse, the complaint alleges that Jacqueline had knowledge that shady business dealings were taking place and willing participated in wrongfully accepting money from the company, which is why she is named as part of the suit! The documents claim Jacqueline, along with Anthony Laurita, “knew of the Laurita Director Defendant’s wrongful conduct, and each substantially assisted the Laurita Director Defendants in breaching their fiduciary duties by, among other conduct, accepting funds they each knew belonged to Signature and for which they each knew they had performed no services and/or provided no value.”
“Funds that should have been used to grow Signature’s business and to pay Signature’s vendors and creditors, instead were diverted to the Laurita Family Defendants.” Oops – that’s not good.
Chris has denied “nearly all of the 155 allegations made in the claim” and believes it should be summarily dismissed, citing: “a failure to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action and a failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.” The case is still pending so Reality Tea keep you posted with all the updates! Jacqueline has yet to comment, but if Bravo had wind of this matter it may have been another reason she skipped the RHONJ Season 3 Reunion!
In my limited knowledge of bankruptcy law, this is what I understand to have happened: it seems that instead of paying creditors to keep the business lucrative the Lauritas allegedly pocketed the proceeds and spent the money for personal use, then filed bankruptcy to avoid paying their bills. Now they are being accused of fraudulently filing bankruptcy. Any legal or financial experts out there please chime in!
In other news, when it flurries it becomes a Norwegian! Just a few days ago it was reported that Jacqueline was indeed a stripper before marrying Chris and Jacqueline is still adamantly denying it! You know the old expression “the lady doth protest too much…”
Jacqueline took to her personal website to clear up any lingering suspicions about how she met Chris and is sticking to the story that they met while she was a convention model. She also posted yet another Tweet denying she was a stripper and accusing someone (ahem…Teresa) of leaking false stories: “Im being 100% honest w/everyone w/my story of how Chris&I met in Chicago. I WAS NOT A STRIPPER/PROSTITUTE as said by shady people 4 money”
I, for one, can’t wait to hear what sister in law from hell, Caroline Manzo has to say about the latest!
[Photo credit: Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos]
THOUGHTS ON THE LAURITA’S FINANCIAL SITUATION? DO YOU BELIEVE THEY ARE INNOCENT OF ANY WRONG DOING? ARE YOU SURPRISED BY WHAT THE ARTICLE IS ALLEGING? DOES THE RECENT INFORMATION CHANGE YOUR OPINION OF JACQUELINE?
700 So Caroline got herself a spin in People. Well, good for her, at least it’s a reputable mag.
This story makes me sick! It’s a microcosm of the society that we live in today and partially responsible for he collapse of our economy. The Laurita’s represent it on a small scale. The alledgedly bilk investors of millions of dollars under the pretense of investing in a business venture. They keep the money to use for personal extravagance, over the edge lifestyle. Even buying Ashley a brand new jeep she didn’t deserve. That’s just a tiny portion of it. This is exactly what the government and the people that are in power have done to us regular Joes. Retired people losing their pensions in 401k’s, hard working people losing homes, regular people unable to pay their medical bills or even groceries at times. All because the greed of people like these. If true, they have committed white collar crimes that could and should be punishable by years in a federal penetentiary. But, I’m sure they’ll have the best of attorneys from the money they have stashed away. Disclaimer: Because I can’t afford any kind of attorney, this is just my OPINION!
Sorry for grammatical errors. Just tired physically and tired of this kind of crap going on!
I think the new RT article was started so we would not keep talking about Jac bankruptcy problems. I wish the people would come back to this one because the other one that is about Teresa blog on bravo is boring. I did read on bravo message board that Jac tweeted that her bk is business and not personal she stated that they r ok just wait and see. So I guess you can not pay your business people and it is OK.
Wow Jaqueline wants to talk about Teresa’s irresponsibility,but not her husbands. I am sure the families who lost out because her husband and brother in law didn’t honor their responsibilities are hurting
@704&705- You’re both so right. A business owner and their employees and vendors need paid too. A small business could be seriously harmed by a bankruptcy like this one. Who in the hell do they think they are? It would be one thing if they would have been responsible with their investors money, but that clearly wasn;t the case. Shame, shame on them!
KARMA-KARMA-KARMA- It’s a real son of a Bit**- LOVE IT-LOVE IT-LOVE IT
707 Karma ~~ so true!
Teresa is delusional and a hypocrite. She is the last person that can talk about exposing her kids on national tv- when she continued fighting with her brother where her daughter Gia was holding her back. And she continued with it! Didn’t even stop! That was TRAGIC! I know Tre’s fans will say, but Joe started. But people thing about what was going on before the christening! This was Bravo’s first taping with the Gorgas and Giudices. Teresa was hopping mad that Kathy and Melissa were on the show and was probably calling them every name in the book off camera which was confirmed at the reunion. And then all of sudden when you get to the christening you want to ACT ALL FAKE AND HUG ON JOE AND MELISSA Like everything is all good now because the cameras are rolling. How would you react! And when Gia sang that song… that should have never happened. But you still continued to act a fool! TRAGIC! Teresa listed all these things (supposed bad behavior) against her cast mates above, but she is the queen of bad behavior! Who did half a$$ flip the table move? Who chased down a woman at a fashion show? Who almost tossed Andy Cohen across a room? Who said it was better to lie than to tell the truth? Who brought a sex toy to a Bravo one-on-one! Who modeled stripper bathing suits in front of friend’s husbands! The list could keep going on and on… She keeps playing the victim about what others said about her, when she WAS DOING THE EXACT SAME THING! So is Teresa the only that can have snide comment about someone! It’s a reality show! If you do something that someone doesn’t like… VOICE IT! AGAIN- It’s a REALITY SHOW! Caroline is not jealous of Teresa! They are just two different people with different moral fiber! Teresa will deny, deny deny and Caroline- well at least she admitted she displayed bad behavior towards Kathy and Melissa. And Teresa and her fans claiming that she was ganged up on is B.S. The whole season was Tre upset with Melissa and Kathy. Tre and Mel had beef! Tre and Kathy had beef! Then things started to turn and Tre and Caroline had beef! The beef had to be discussed at the reunion! It’s not Mel, Kathy and Caroline’s fault that they were able to be friends! What were they suppose to fight about? NOTHING! So the beef had to be discussed it was Teresa against everyone else! That’s what we saw the whole season. SO WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT! Teresa’s brand is to bash and display bad behavior so she will never genuinely makeup with anyone on the show! It’s all about getting that check! Teresa, her team and fans are delusional! When Teresa writes a blog bashing everyone. Teresa and her fans call it- “I have to defend myself”. If any of the other cast mates say something that goes against Teresa- then they are bashing which is B.S AND DELUSIONAL BEHAVIOR! Teresa Giudice can go SCRATCH!
469peachpat
2 Nov, 2011 at 9:33 am
DramaLlama….I think kathy and richie are really good parents and have an exellent rapport with their kids. They seem to have a set of expectations and rules for their children and follow thru on them. Something you definitely see lacking with some of the other children on this show. and in some cases the adults[teresa]
Sorry, but if they were such good parents then one of their rules would be that you don’t be disrespectful of your elders and don’t dip in grown folks business. If my kid was cussing and insulting an adult unprovoked, I’d take his/her Internet privileges away pronto.
I came 2 read about the bankruptcy and 709 crazy Melissa/Jacq/pichelle is putting some B.S. about a party the 1st episode. CRAZY- let it go.
These women are all liars……cheats…….and media whores………they need to quit the show and mend their family issues privately
pichelle give it a rest all of them have something to hide kathy and mellisa should remember the saying you get /got what you asked for and besides old lady caroline who would she talk to if she didnt have teresas family and jaquelines the pot calling the kettle black get real nobodys perfect
Let us not forget that Jacqueline’s father-in-law was killed in a mob hit. Just sayin’. They take offense if people say they are mobbed up, but come on. Draining a previously legitimate company of all its money is a typical mob tactic.
So i have å question about a quote in the article.
“In other news, when it flurries it becomes a Norwegian”
what did Mary mean by this? I could not understand the context in relation to the article.