Fotis Dulos, 52, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with murder in Connecticut
Alarming new details about the state of Fotis Dulos’ finances have been revealed in the arrest warrant charging him with the murder of his estranged wife Jennifer Dulos.
Dulos, 52, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with murder, felony murder, and kidnapping in the May 24 disappearance of 50-year-old Jennifer from her home in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Also charged with conspiracy to murder were Dulos’ girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his friend and civil attorney, Kent Douglas Mawhinney, for their alleged roles in plotting and covering up the murder.
The body of Jennifer, a mother of five, has never been found — but investigators are convinced she is deceased.
Now, court documents reveal Fotis’ desperate financial state in early 2019, stating that he was lapsing on loan interest payments and funneling money from his and his wife’s joint checking account into his own personal account.
The body of Jennifer, a mother of five, has never been found — but investigators are convinced she is deceased. Now, court documents reveal Fotis’ desperate financial state in early 2019
Fotis operates his company, Fore Group, from this massive $4.2 million mansion in Farmington, a palatial 13,889-square-foot residence with six bedrooms and 7.5 baths
Fotis met Jennifer when they were students at Brown University, and the couple married in 2004. Fotis went on to complete an MBA in finance at Columbia University, and works as a builder and developer of luxury homes in Connecticut’s Farmington Valley, where the couple raised their five children.
He operates his company, Fore Group, from his own massive $4.2 million mansion in Farmington – a palatial 13,889-square-foot residence with six bedrooms and 7.5 baths.
But behind the opulent facade lurked dark secrets, investigators say. Jennifer filed for divorce in 2017 and moved out of the Farmington mansion. The divorce battle turned ugly, as the pair battled for custody of their children.
Meanwhile, Fotis’ financial situation was turning increasingly dire, according to court documents.
By the end of May 2019, when Jennifer disappeared, Fotis’ total outstanding debts at added up to $4.5 million, in addition to mortgages taken out on his various properties, the documents say.
As well, he faced crushing lawsuits from Jennifer’s own mother, Gloria Farber, the widow of a prominent New York banker and philanthropist.
Fotis Dulos faced crushing lawsuits from Jennifer’s own mother, Gloria Farber (above), the widow of a prominent New York banker and philanthropist
Fotis Dulos (left) siphoned insurance payments from a joint checking account with wife Jennifer (right) in the months before her disappearance, investigators say
The lawsuits claimed that Fotis had failed to pay back various loans from Farber and her husband — loans that Fotis said were gifts he was not obligated to repay.
Mawhinney, the attorney charged with conspiracy to murder, represented Fotis in his divorce as well as the lawsuits from the mother-in-law.
In early 2019, Fotis began scrambling to inject cash into Fore Group’s main bank account, opening a new line of credit with People’s United Bank as he maxed out an existing credit line with the Savings Bank of Danbury, investigators say.
In March, April and May, he missed interest payments on the People’s United Bank loan, which totaled about $530,000, according to documents.
Then in April 2019, he received a wire for $149,500 from a cash advance operation based in Utah — the type of high-interest loan that businesses turn to in moments of desperation.
It was during this time period that Fotis received three checks from Chubb Insurance Group totaling $193,610.50 and made out to ‘Fotis and Jennifer Dulos.’
Bank records show that all three checks were deposited into a joint checking account held by Fotis and Jennifer, but that Jennifer did not sign any of the checks.
Following each deposit, the funds were immediately withdrawn and deposited into Fotis’ personal bank account, some of which was then transferred to the Fore Group account, according to investigators. None of the insurance money went to Jennifer.
A breakdown of the bank account for Fore Group shows that most of the money coming in was from loans and cash advances in April and May 2019
Fotis Dulos is led by police in Connecticut after being arrested for the murder of his wife
Girlfriend Michelle Troconis is led to a police car in Connecticut after earlier being arrested
Investigators say that each of the Dulos’ five children had a trust fund established by Gloria and her late husband, Hilliard Farber.
‘In the event of Jennifer’s disappearance, and in the subsequent event that Dulos gained custody of his children, Dulos would have expected some level of access to the children’s trust funds,’ cops wrote in the warrant affidavit.
Jennifer’s mother, Gloria, currently has full custody of the five children and is caring for them in her Upper East Side apartment on Fifth Avenue.
Fotis and his attorneys have argued that Jennifer is not really dead, and likely staged her own disappearance, planting blood in an attempt to frame her estranged husband for murder.
‘We categorically deny that Mr Dulos had any involvement in the disappearance of his wife, and we defy the state to prove that she is actually dead,’ Dulos’ criminal attorney Norm Pattis said at a press conference on Tuesday.
‘Mr. Dulos contends he was not involved and I don’t think the evidence will show that he was,’ Pattis said.
Michelle Troconis, 45, and Dulos’ former attorney, Kent Mawhinney (right), are charged with conspiracy to commit murder for their alleged roles in the plot
The family of Jennifer Dulos expressed their gratitude for the arrests in a statement released by close friend Carrie Luft.
‘Above all we thank the Connecticut State Police and the New Canaan Police Department, as well as the assisting local departments, for their tireless commitment and diligent, painstaking work that have led to these arrests,’ the family said.
‘Although we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, for us there is no sense of closure. Nothing can bring Jennifer back. We miss her every day and will forever mourn her loss,’ the statement added.
‘We believe the arrest warrants will speak for themselves, and we ask that you please respect our privacy during this time. Thank you,’ the statement concluded.
Fotis’ girlfriend Troconis is accused of helping him dispose of evidence on the day of Jennifer’s disappearance. The lawyer Mawhinney is accused of digging a grave and stocking it with lime before she disappeared, though the grave was discovered and never used.
Fotis Dulos, Troconis and Mawhinney are expected to face arraignment on Wednesday in Stamford.
Dulos is being held in lieu of a $6 million bail. Bail for both Troconis and Mawhinney has been set at $2 million.