Judge: Fotis Dulos must reveal how Norm Pattis is being paid

Fotis Dulos, right, appears for a press conference with his attorney Norm Pattis, left, following his arraignment on a new tampering with evidence charge Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, at state Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. less Fotis Dulos, right, appears for a press conference with his attorney Norm Pattis, left, following his arraignment on a new tampering with evidence charge Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, at state Superior Court in ... more Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 210 Caption Close Judge: Fotis Dulos must reveal how Norm Pattis is being paid 1 / 210 Back to Gallery

Fotis Dulos will not have to undergo an extensive review of his Fore Group finances, but he will need to disclose how he’s paying his criminal defense attorney and private investigator.

A Hartford judge issued several rulings last week in Gloria Farber’s $2.5 million lawsuit against her son-in-law, who was also ordered to reveal how much he was reimbursed by his company for business expenses.

Attorney William Murray, representing Fotis Dulos in the lawsuit, fought to conceal the funding source and how much criminal defense attorney Norm Pattis and private investigator Patrick McKenna are being paid.

Pattis is representing Fotis Dulos in criminal court, where he and Michelle Troconis are each charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance.

Pattis has also filed motions in the civil proceedings to avoid disclosing the financial information and to dodge appearing for a deposition in the lawsuit.

Hartford Superior Court Judge Cesar Noble hasn’t ruled on Pattis’ motions. But the judge did submit several orders last week on outstanding motions, including Murray’s objection to providing a host of financial information to Farber’s attorney, Richard Weinstein.

Noble declined to require an intense financial review of the books of the Fore Group, the high-end real estate development company owned by Fotis Dulos. However, Noble sided with Weinstein in several other rulings, requiring Fotis Dulos to reveal the financial information related to Pattis and McKenna.

Fotis Dulos will also have to supply financial affidavits furnished for his divorce, which was proceeding when Jennifer Dulos disappeared on May 24, an accounting of how much and for what he was reimbursed by the Fore Group for business expenses and any documents given to Pattis related to his Fidelity retirement account.

His former civil attorney, David Markowitz, will also have to appear at a deposition in the lawsuits and supply three years of financial information related to the Fore Group, according to the orders. Like Pattis, Markowitz was seeking to quash a subpoena requiring him to attend a deposition and provide financial information related to Fotis Dulos’ dealings.

Markowitz will have until Oct. 7 to comply with the subpoena, which includes supplying financial information for 2017 to 2019, Noble said in the order.

Weinstein has skewered Fotis Dulos in repeated court filings in recent weeks, alleging financial wrongdoing as police continue to search for Jennifer Dulos.

Fotis and Jennifer Dulos were embroiled in a bitter two-year divorce when the 50-year-old mother of five vanished.

More than a year before Jennifer Dulos disappeared, her mother and the estate of her late father, Hilliard Farber, filed twin lawsuits claiming Fotis Dulos failed to repay $2.5 million in loans the family made to his company.

Weinstein contends Fotis Dulos has not paid alimony or child support since his wife filed for divorce in 2017 and stopped paying the mortgage on his Farmington home last November. Weinstein’s client, who put up $2.3 million in cash collateral so Fotis and Jennifer Dulos could purchase the home in 2012, has filed to foreclose on the property.

Farber, 84, has been granted the right to intervene in her daughter’s contentious two-year divorce and has maintained custody of the couple’s children since Jennifer Dulos went missing. Farber is now seeking sole legal custody of them.

Weinstein said in court filings that Fotis Dulos supplied contradictory information about his finances as part of the lawsuits and is trying to “disseminate” his assets as part of his divorce to Jennifer Dulos. Weinstein was seeking an intense review of the Fore Group’s finances, which Noble called overly broad while sustaining Murray’s objection to the examination.

Murray contends the lawsuit hinges on whether the Farber family’s money was a gift to Fotis Dulos as his client has said. Murray was also objecting to providing much of the information Weinstein was seeking on grounds it is covered by attorney-client privilege. Noble sided with Weinstein, saying the financial data was not privileged since it did not contain legal advice.

Jennifer Dulos was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera returning home around 8:05 a.m. May 24 after dropping off her five children at a nearby school.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” when she arrived at her Welles Lane, New Canaan, home, where they found evidence that she was the victim of a “serious physical assault” based on blood stains and spatter in the garage, according to arrest warrants.

Fotis Dulos, 52, pleaded not guilty last week to the latest tampering with evidence charge. The charge is related to Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis cleaning up a pickup truck — owned by a former Fore Group employee — that police say was involved in the disappearance, according to the arrest warrant.

Under the direction of Fotis Dulos, the employee later removed the seats from his truck, but he kept them and turned them over to investigators who found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them, the arrest warrants state.