New developments have continued to unfold in the mysterious case of the missing Jewish billionaire from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which was reported in last week’s issue of the Jewish Voice.
In a court hearing, the attorney for the wife of missing Guma Aguiar suggested that the business magnate and philanthropist may have staged his own disappearance so that he could run away from a plethora of personal troubles, including financial, legal and marital problems.
“It’s a family tragedy involving a young man who’s intelligent and very talented, but has a severe mental illness, and those two things have interacted in his life for the last four years and have impacted his wife and four children dramatically,” attorney Bill Scherer stated. “He either committed suicide, fell off the boat and drowned – or staged it. It’s hard to tell at this point…My client does hope and pray that he didn’t die.”
The vice chairman and chief executive officer of Leor Energy, Aguiar is widely recognized for his generous support of various Jewish causes, including Nefesh B’Nefesh and the March of the Living. In 2009, Aguiar invested more than $4 million in the Beitar Jerusalem Football Club. The 35-year-old Aguiar has not been seen since he went out to sea on June 19. His 31-foot fishing boat subsequently washed up on a Fort Lauderdale beach with the engine running and the lights on.
In the immediate aftermath of Aguiar’s disappearance, both his wife, Jamie, and mother, Ellen, squared off against each other, filing a number of legal documents seeking to gain control of his assets, which are said to be worth more than $100 million. During the contentious court hearing, Scherer accused Ellen Aguiar of being a perennial “enabler of Guma’s irrationality,” and he said she rode on her son’s “gravy train” of wealth.
In tears throughout much of the hearing, at one point Jamie Aguiar was removed from the courtroom because she was crying so strongly. In contrast, her mother-in-law sat straight-faced and calmly next to her attorney. Defending her stoic demeanor, Ellen Aguiar said, “Without the evidence of a body, we are all hoping that Guma will come back. To say I’m not hysterical in court…I haven’t eaten for a week. This is really my beloved son. It’s a horrible situation.”
In a document filed with the court, Guma Aguiar’s wife sharply criticized her mother-in-law for making her legal bid for her son’s assets less than 48 hours after his disappearance. Terming her mother-in-law’s move “wholly premature,” Jamie Aguiar stated that her own filing was the only way she could “protect the interest of herself and her children from what is sadly the latest in a long line of Ellen Aguiar’s pervasive, persistent, and ill-advised attempts to disrupt the home life of Jamie, Guma, and their children and seize control of their finances.”
The billionaire’s wife further alleged that Ellen Aguiar had interfered with the police investigation of her missing son, by possibly deleting “critical voice and/or text messages” from Guma’s phone. But the older woman declared that her filing was “not a power grab. I don’t rely on my son for financial support…I am only trying to do what’s right.” Ellen Aguiar insisted that she just desires to protect her son’s assets, as well as ensure the continued running of his business operations and the payment of his company’s bills and salaries.
The missing man’s mother also lodged a personal charge against her daughter-in-law, claiming that Jamie Aguiar had asked her son to grant her a divorce shortly before he went out on his boat for the last time. Ellen Aguiar suggested that the shock of Jamie’s sudden request may have contributed to Guma Aguiar’s disappearance. “The Counter Petitioner [Jamie Aguiar] threatened the Absentee with divorce which drove him to the mental instability which led directly to his disappearance,” charged Ellen Aguiar’s attorney Richard Baron. “She then has the unmitigated gall to act as the grieving widow. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The hearing concluded with the judge granting Ellen Aguiar a certain level of control over her son’s estate, allowing her to choose the Northern Trust wealth management company to handle his considerable assets. The arrangement was reached through the efforts of a committee – put together by Ellen Aguiar – that consisted of two rabbis and a member of their congregation.