This story may come as a big surprise, but an elderly Florida millionaire has filed to divorce his much younger wife after she allegedly tried to defraud him.
Richard Rappaport, 77, moved to end the marriage with spouse Lin Helena Halfon, 26, on Friday, according to records in Hillsborough County, Florida (h/t WFLA). That union only dated back to last August.
Clearly, he’s not standing by her side amid her ongoing criminal case because, well, he’s the alleged victim.
Records show Halfon pleaded not guilty on December 20 to charges of money laundering, organized fraud, exploitation of an elderly person. Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement say she tried to cash in a cashier’s check last November and passed it off as money for a yacht, but employees at an Amscot turned her down because it was in her husband’s name and he wasn’t there. She allegedly came in again with three checks worth $333,333.
Lin Halfon divided the $1 million into three checks and told her husband, Tampa businessman Richard Rappaport, that she’d return them. When two of the checks totaling $666,666 were cashed by a man in New Jersey, Rappaport conceded he’d been victimized.https://t.co/qdI7P6IE60
— Tampa Bay Times (@TB_Times) December 24, 2019
A man allegedly cashed two of those checks up in New Jersey later than month, authorities said.
Investigators said that Rappaport, a local businessman, initially tried to defend his wife from the allegations, but eventually changed his mind, and said he believed he was the victim of fraud and theft.
A hearing in the criminal case is set for Wednesday.
Halfon’s attorney Todd Fisher said they’re considering arguing whether she really committed a crime.
“Can a wife steal from her husband?” he told WFLA. “Is that a crime? We’re looking at that.”
[Mugshot via Hillsborough County Jail]
