Socialite seeks $450,000 in monthly maintenance
UPDATE: Nurdian Cuaca, ex-husband of Jamie Cuaca, is reportedly on the Interpol list for fraud charges. However, a statement released yesterday to The Straits Times by Mr Cuaca's lawyer cited that Cuaca is "unaware of any valid basis for the Interpol Red Notice, which appears to have originated from a Jakarta source".
The lawyer added that the 45-year-old businessman has travelled freely from Singapore to Indonesia and other countries since November.
According to the Interpol website, the Red Notice is a "warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition."
An Indonesian tycoon has failed to unfreeze $93 million of his assets pending the outcome of a divorce suit.
Mr Nurdian Cuaca, 44, and Madam Jamie Chua Xin Yin, 36, a Singaporean, had been married for over 15 years, before filing for divorce in February last year over 'unreasonable behaviour'. They have two children.
Some details of Mr Cuaca's assets were revealed in court:
1) He received some $12.5m income through moneychangers around late April 2010
2) A Lamborghini
3) A Porsche Cayenne
4) 70 per cent beneficial interest in a private company, D'League Pte Ltd
5) Freight businesses in Indonesia
6) A wine collection
Mr Cuaca's assets include two houses in Sentosa Cove and in Hong Kong worth $14.6 million, $79.2 million in shares in a private company, his wine collection and his three cars - a Lamborghini, a Porsche and a Ferrari.
Madam Chua was a former flight stewardess and is currently the managing director of the Manolo Blahnik Singapore shoe boutique.
She is also frequently spotted at high society events in Singapore.
Madam Chua is seeking $450,000 in monthly maintenance from Mr Cuaca.
Her lawyers had applied for an asset freeze and interim maintenance order because Mr Cuaca had reduced her monthly maintenance amount and cancelled her supplementary card.
In explaining the decision to freeze Mr Cuaca's assets, the judge said the latter was found to have transferred $3.2 million from a bank here to Indonesia.
Mr Cuaca had claimed this was monies that belonged to his sister, a Miss Risna.
However, the judge wrote that there was strong evidence that the removal of the amount was to shrink the matrimonial assets that would be divided by the courts.
Given the circumstances, the judge said the withdrawal of that $3.2million "was not legitimate and was not justified."
In addition, he had also attempted on two occasions to dispose of his wine collection in their matrimonial home, and shut down the couple's shoe business, Cloud 9 Lifestyle, which owns Madam Chua's Manolo Blahnik shoe boutique, by terminating interbank loans from the parent company, D'League Pte Ltd to Cloud 9.
He had also tried to dispose of the family cars (see inset box above for details).
Mr Cuaca has appealed against the decision, which will be heard in the High Court in February.
A pre-trial conference on the divorce suit will be held in the Family Court tomorrow.
