Financial overview
Documentation
The site's documentary record: court orders, bank records, and the $600,000 transfer.
Child support:
Monthly amount from November 2001 to March 2003: $25,000.
Monthly amount from March 2003 until now: $11,000
Note: you will notice that the account from which child support was authorized is #31303566, which is the number of the joint account in Smith-Barney shown below in the list of family accounts. It had a balance of $668,512.34 at the outset of the case. (See bank statement below.) The account ran dry in March 2003. At that point child support was taken instead from the children’s accounts, and lowered to $11,000 per month, still continuing today.
Update: this stopped in 2016, as the last child was emancipated.
Judge Daniels support order, November 27, 2001, page 1: $25,000/month unallocated support
Please note that all these court orders were to the bank to disburse the money directly to Mrs. Ort from the frozen accounts. There was no way anyone could claim that the money was not actually transferred.
Bank Statement:
Salomon Smith Barney account statement, March 1-30, 2003
Reconciliation payments:
Arbitration ruling excerpt: voluntary reconciliation payments of $316,210.52
Child support: Court order – November 27 of $25,000 monthly:
Arbitration order for child support:
These payments began back in 2003.
Children’s assets at her disposal: (sources 5-8)
Schedule A: Salomon Smith Barney family accounts and approximate values
Account list: children’s accounts and the Ort Family Charitable Unitrust CDs
Where did the money originate from?
The Ort seniors – R’ Avraham Ort’s parents:
$600,000 taken from Mrs. Ort Sr.’s account (R’ Avraham Ort’s mother) and ostensibly given to “charity”
Mrs. Ort acknowledged in her deposition that in January 2000 she took $350,000 from the bank account of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Ort senior, (who had passed away in November 1999) and wired it to another account belonging to Mrs. Ort Sr. in Israel, containing $250,000. She then gave the entire amount, $600,000 to her cousin R’ Ira Adler, 12 Wallenberg Circle, Monsey NY. She asserts that she instructed him to disburse the $600,000 to “a yeshiva” (unnamed!).
(Note date: January 4, 2000 – exactly one month BEFORE filing suit for divorce!)
Letter in her own hand authorizing the transfer:
Handwritten authorization to wire $350,000 to Israel
The deposition in which she acknowledges giving the money to “a yeshiva”
Deposition excerpt: Mrs. Manya Ort on the $600,000
Here is the deposition Rabbi Adler gave:
Page 2 of Ira Adler’s affirmation: paragraphs 6-11 on the source of the $600,000
This means: a 19 year-old girl who had never worked a day in her life came to R’ Adler with SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS and asked him to give it away to charity (any charity!) and it never occurred to him to ask her where she got all that money and why she is giving it away. Right.
The children’s accounts we speak of; was there any real money there?? Answer: MILLIONS of dollars!!
Here are some of the records;
Schedule A: Salomon Smith Barney family accounts and approximate values
Schedule A: First Union family accounts, Dove Foundation time deposits, and children’s trusts
Account list: children’s accounts and the Ort Family Charitable Unitrust CDs
What was R’ Avraham left with after the arbitration – didn’t he also receive a nice sum?
He was left with ZERO!
The final settlement awarded Mrs. Ort all the assets of the marriage. This occurred, despite the theory of equitable distribution, because the joint account had been spent on child support. Mrs Ort retained residential custody of the children in accordance with the husband’s wishes for the sake of their stability, who are in turn the recipients of their father’s assets. Furthermore, the amount of support for which R’ Avrohom was held accountable was greater than his equitable share of the marital assets.
Here is the Final Arbitration document
Page 8 of the Final Arbitration Ruling: procedural history of the divorce