Could missing millionaire Guma Aguiar be living in the Low Country?
The attorney for Aguiar's wife told CBS Miami he is investigating reports that both Aguiar's sister Angelika and one of his close business partners have moved to The Netherlands -- and the possibility that Aguiar is there, too.
"Could be a coincidence," said attorney William Scherer, "but you know Jamie hopes there's information about her husband and that he may still be alive. So we'll see."
Jamie Aguiar hasn't seen her husband, an emotionally troubled oil tycoon, since before he left the couple's Fort Lauderdale home June 19 on his fishing boat in rough weather.
The 31-foot craft washed ashore some hours later with its motor running and Aguiar's wallet and cell phone on board. But there was no sign of the father of four, setting off a fruitless 2-day search and a nasty ongoing legal battle between his wife and mother over his imperiled fortune.
Court records show Aguiar, who suffers from severe bipolar disorder, has been hospitalized several times, was once given a court-appointed guardian, and was, according to friends, suffering from extreme stress over back-and-forth lawsuits with his uncle, with whom he started a Texas oil business that sold for $2.5 billion in 2006.
Mom Ellen Aguiar moved to control her son's fortune before Coast Guard divers had called off the search for his body, prompting criticism -- and, in court, questions about whether her son purposefully disappeared.
According to CBS, the most recent legal wrangling concerns more than dozen properties Aguiar purchased in Israel. His mother reportedly says Aguiar gave the properties to her and her daughters as gifts, but Scherer told the station Aguiar's sisters have been evading process servers in order to avoid giving depositions.
Ellen Aguiar's attorneys have previously accused Jamie Aguiar of requesting a divorce in the hours before Aguiar went missing, which they say "pushed him over the deep end."
Friends told the AP that his wife, who married Aguiar before he made his fortune, had been trying to create a peaceful home life to ease his mind after his mental state deteriorated. The couple has four children under the age of 7.
"That was all Jamie wanted for him," said close family friend Wes Shelton. "I think Jamie was really hopeful that the old Guma would come back."
But it appears all was not going smoothly: court documents obtained by ABC News showed Jamie Aguiar had moved to overturn the couple's prenup agreement just months before her husband went missing, referring to her life as a "living nightmare." She had also filed a domestic violence order against him last summer, after which Aguiar filed a divorce petition. Both were voluntarily dismissed.
It was also revealed in court that nearly half of Aguiar's $180 million fortune was gone by the time he disappeared, a large chunk spent on legal fees. Reportedly looking to downsize, Jamie Aguiar listed their 6-bedroom, 9,569-square foot home in Fort Lauderdale's Rio Vista Isles for $5,150,000 in September.
View photos below, courtesy Realtor.com:
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