$500,000 on Pearl Jewelry?

Tue May 01 09:18:06 EDT 2007
Interesting article in today's news...
TYRE tycoon Bob Jane's wife spent almost $500,000 on pearls and
secretly ran up a similar amount on credit cards, it is alleged in
court documents.

Supreme Court documents relating to a dispute over the ownership of
two Bob Jane T-Mart franchises also claim Laree Jane tried to siphon
money out of her ailing husband's accounts days after he suffered a
stroke.

Mr Jane, 77, accuses his wife - who is almost 40 years younger - of
being a compulsive spender who secretly applied for up to 14 credit
cards.

He claims she was infatuated with Paspaley pearls and spent excessive
amounts on jewelery and holidays.

Mr Jane said his wife was spending so much that he was forced to put
her on a budget of $840,000 a year for family related expenses.

But the $70,000-a-month budget plan only prompted Mrs Jane to hide her
spending.

Mrs Jane married Bob Jane as a 20-something in 1988. In an affidavit,
Mrs Jane said he gave her a $1500-a-month allowance from the time they
were married for her personal needs. This was lifted to $3000 a month
in 1993, plus $2400 a month in wages for work she did for Mr Jane. But
she said things changed about 2000 when Mr Jane gave her a cheque book
to pay family expenses.

She said when Mr Jane's secretary began paying the family's bills she
had no access to cash and was forced to withdraw money from her credit
cards to pay some family and personal costs.

Mrs Jane said she and her husband "were in the habit of purchasing
pearls from the Paspaley family".

She said the Paspaley family opened an account for the couple in 1998
and by 2005 a $483,000 debt had been accrued.

"Sometimes previously it had been much higher than this," she said.

Mr Jane said his wife was spending so much of his money that even his
bank warned him that it had to stop.

He said "as soon as I was hospitalised" Mrs Jane ordered the Bob Jane
Corporation's chief financial officer to transfer money out of the
company's bank accounts and put it into her own. Mr Jane said when he
heard this he asked his son, Rodney, to contact his bank to find out
the real state of his finances.

He said his son found a $1.5 million loan Mrs Jane had secretly set up
to boost her personal spending.