Millions up for grabs in Scaife divorce fight (Caught him in Affair)

[RamboLiberal]

The divorce case titled Scaife v. Scaife has wound its way through the courts under a blanket of secrecy as both sides struggle over a storied Pittsburgh fortune surpassing $1.4 billion and a temporary monthly alimony payment bigger than the life savings of most people.

Margaret Ritchie Battle Scaife, 60, and her husband, Mellon banking and oil heir Richard Mellon Scaife, 75, have been unable to agree on support payments, whether one of his newspapers is a hobby or a business investment, and even the date of their separation. She says they split in December 2005, after she caught him in an affair. He says they separated 10 months earlier.

Details of the dispute have remained out of the public eye for more than a year. Lawyers for Mr. Scaife, a reclusive financier of the political right who underwrote much of the campaign against the Clinton administration in the 1990s, asked Allegheny County Judge Alan Hertzberg to seal the record of his divorce. The judge complied.

The marriage of Richard and "Ritchie" Scaife, as she preferred to call herself, was Mr. Scaife's second. The couple had been together since the early '80s while Mr. Scaife was still married to his first wife, the former Frances Gilmore. In the course of the next 14 years, Ritchie Scaife would serve on the board of Mr. Scaife's publishing company, sometimes exercising influence in its editorial judgments, and once sat alongside him during a rare interview he granted in the midst of the Clinton investigations. All the while, she was living in a Shadyside house of her own two blocks from the Westminster Place mansion occupied by Mr. Scaife.

-----

The case could also affect the fortunes of Mr. Scaife's publishing enterprise, notably the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which, records filed with the divorce papers show, he has subsidized with more than $140 million -- Mrs. Scaife's lawyers contend the figure is $244 million -- from one of his trust funds over the past 15 years, and which has lost between $20 million and $30 million yearly since it was started in 1992.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07259/817950-85.stm

[supernova]

1. Tsk Tsk, the bad behavior

comes home to roost.

edit: I hope she soaks him so that he can't finance this right wing fascist crap anymore.

[malaise]

20. Wasn't she having an affair with him while

he was still married? WTF else did she expect? Fugg all these hypocrites.

[babylonsister]

2. She's going to be a catch! nt

[jobycom]

3. I wish I could write the revenge script for that one.

After taking him for everything he was worth and leaving him destitute, she would softly whisper in his ear "Oh yeah, and I slept with Bill Clinton before you left me." :rofl:

Sorry, but that's one piece of filth I don't mind seeing suffer. His ridiculous efforts, largely successful, to smear Clinton led to half the problems we are facing now. He deserves to end in misery. Probably won't, though.

[AlCzervik]

4. oh please let it be in open court and may it be a protracted battle.

[defendandprotect]

5. So . .. is this why Scaife gave up funding the right-wing think tanks, etc. . . . or plans to????

[AlCzervik]

6. pffftttt, i'll believe it when i don't see any trace of his money.

i hope his ex wife buys air time to run attack ads on him.

[defendandprotect]

12. A few years ago -- 5 or less -- after a lot of info got out that he had been funding the right . . .

so heavily . . . he announced that he would soon stop funding all of the right-wing stuff.
Who knew exactly why, but presumed that he felt he had pretty much gained all he could get at his age???? He didn't say why as I recall.

I don't know when this divorce thing got started -- but maybe even Scaife has $ problems????

Descriptions of his behavior, if I recall correctly, are that he is a total and complete mess of a human being -- foul mouthed and vile.

[gratuitous]

7. Scaife is 75?

Bummer; he's probably headed for the family vault before too long. Here's hoping his final years are laced with just a soupcon of the misery he's inflicted on the nation.

[calimary]

25. I noticed that, too.

:evilgrin:

[hang a left]

8. OMG and I thought I had a nasty divorce.

That goodness they don't have children.

It is hard to take a side here since it appears that both of them have been responsible for fomenting racism and hatred with their media empire and connections to the repukes.

[blue neen]

9. Money can't buy class.

RM Scaife never had it and never will.

I hope she gets half of his fortune!

[hang a left]

10. From what it appears...

She seems to be a like-thinker.

Still I hope she takes him to the cleaners. Just cuz.

[TommyO]

26. This is one case where I hope the lawyers really do get it all

Leave these right wing nuts penniless!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. I've never ever heard of the Tribune-Review. Is it a total rag like the NY Post?

[struggle4progress]

13. Yeah: the Trib is another wingnut gift to birdcages everywhere

[Flabbergasted]

14. And may he lose every dime.

[DURHAM D]

15. This article doesn't mention Scaife's ownership of

Ted Olson - current Solicitor General of the U.S.

Ted's wife Barbara is no doubt living in one of Scaife's homes.

[hang a left]

19. Or how about Offutt Airforce Base.

http://www.offutt.af.mil/

[autorank]

16. RamboLiberal, bearer of terrific news - this guy! and his attacks on Clinton, who is still married;)

$1.5 billin, what an ass. His family owned a huge chunk of the whole country and he's frittered it
away, like investigating Clinton.

AN AFFAIR!!!! The wacky right accuses others of what they do, on a consistent basis.

Great news. As for the paper, if this kills it, it's doing Scaife a favor. Who reads it? Nobody.

K*R

[The Doctor.]

17. Conflicted people seldom live unconflicted lives...

"Confucious say."

[SoCalDem]

18. Here's hoping she writes a book and spills the family secrets

That would be a very interesting book, indeed. of course when money like this is at stake, there is almost always a confidentiality agreement:grr:

[Disturbed]

21. Was he so stupid as not to have a Pre-nup Agreement?

I hope so. RWing Hypocrite.

[Buns_of_Fire]

22. But who's going to bulk-buy all the RW Nutjobs' books after she takes him to the cleaners?

Think Bill Orally. Think Ann Coulter. Think Sean Hannity. The NYT is going to have to retire the obligatory dagger that indicates that one of their books is only on the top ten list because of bulk buying!

[kineneb]

24. they will be used for firestarters and toilet paper

after the economy tanks. I can't think of a better use for such drivel.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. Kick for schadenfreude nt