A wealthy businessman will pay his estranged wife monthly child support and housing costs totaling 28,000 shekels, the Ashdod Family Court recently ruled.
Judge Anat Alfasi said the decision was based on the woman’s lack of disposable income and the fact that the former husband does not maintain visitation with the children and “prefers to fly abroad with his current partner.”
During nearly two decades of marriage, the couple lived a luxurious lifestyle that included a penthouse apartment and a vacation home. Their relationship broke down last year, and they now live separately, with the woman remaining in the penthouse with the children.
In her support claim, the mother said the family lived a lifestyle associated with Israel’s top economic tier, including luxury cars, overseas vacations, business-class flights and a full-time housekeeper paid about 9,000 shekels a month. She said her husband transferred about 120,000 shekels a month during the marriage for family expenses. She added that she has not worked for many years because she was raising the children, while the father is a shareholder in several real estate corporations worth millions of shekels. She said he currently leads a lavish lifestyle that includes spending tens of thousands of shekels on designer brands, upscale restaurants and drugs.
The father argued that due to the coronavirus crisis and Swords of Iron war, the companies he owns ran into difficulties. He also claimed his wife works but conceals her income. He said he was willing to pay relatively standard child support of 6,500 shekels a month, plus half the mortgage on the penthouse.
Judge Alfasi noted, however, that he manages six real estate companies and that the full scope of his business activity and income has yet to be disclosed. He also owns half of a residential apartment, a vacation home and an additional parcel of land. He has seven bank accounts and holds rights in nine insurance, pension, provident and continuing education funds. “A brief review of his credit card statements shows that each month he spends tens of thousands of shekels on his own living expenses, from which it can be assumed that his financial situation is sufficiently sound,” she wrote.
Attorney Haya Rudnitzky Drori Photo: Yuval Cohen AharonovShe assessed his available monthly income at “at least” 80,000 shekels. The woman’s income, by contrast, was set at zero, as she is unemployed and even if she enters the labor market would earn minimum wage that would be fully absorbed by expenses. The ruling said there was no justification for reducing the father’s share of child support due to visitation arrangements, given the mother’s claim that he does not bother to keep them and instead prefers to fly abroad with his current partner “without informing the children who are waiting for him.”
In light of the affluent lifestyle to which the family had become accustomed, the court ordered the father to pay 21,400 shekels a month for the children. Judge Alfasi added housing and maintenance costs of 6,600 shekels, bringing the total monthly payment to 28,000 shekels