As more details come to light in the case of Guma Aguiar, an oil-tycoon millionaire who mysteriously vanished from his yacht off the Florida coast on June 19, the revelations seem only to prompt more questions.
Documents recently obtained by ABC News show that less than two months prior to his disappearance, Aguiar's wife, Jamie, filed to overturn the couple's prenuptial agreement, referring to their relationship as a "living nightmare".
The documents reveal a fiery legal battle between Aguiar's wife and mother, Ellen, over assets estimated to exceed $100 million, reports ABC.
Given that the prenup prohibits Jamie from receiving more than $500,000 of the fortune, it adds intrigue to speculation that Guma may have faked his own disappearance, perhaps to avoid a more costly divorce.
Legal hearings over the estate have been rife with allegations of greed, marital trouble and accusations of a staged disappearance.
"Ellen Aguiar over here has been on the gravy train for years," said Jamie Aguiar's attorney, William Scherer, who according to WSVN questioned whether Aguiar and his mother schemed to stage his disappearance.
"We have not heard from and have not had any confirmed sightings of Guma Aguilar at this point," testified Fort Lauderdale Police Sgt. Steve Novak in an earlier court appearance.
Lawyers have also claimed in court that almost half of Aguiar's imperiled fortune is gone, heightening the urgency to preserve the estate which supports his family and four young children. Though the college dropout earned $180 million from the 2007 sale of a Texas energy company he started with his uncle, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a lawsuit between the two men has cost $25 million to $30 million in legal fees that threaten Aguiar's fortune.
Additionally, Aguiar may face a trial for damages after allegedly hacking into his uncle's computer to obtain documents related to the case, according to the Sun-Sentinel report.
Poor investments have cut into the fortune, too: "He received 180 million," Scherer told the court. "About half of it is gone."
The court does not have jurisdiction over some $40 million invested in real estate and sports teams in Israel that according to the Miami Herald Scherer said were in danger of bankrupting the family.
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 the lawsuits.
He'd recently transferred guardianship of the estate in his will from his wife to his mother -- just two months after filing a similar document with the women's roles reversed. But Ellen Aguiar moved to control the fortune before Coast Guard divers had even called off a 2-day search for her son's body, prompting criticism -- and, in court, questions about whether her son purposefully disappeared, possibly with her help.
After backlash from her daughter-in-law, whom she accuses of telling her son hours before his disappearance that she wanted a divorce, Ellen Aguiar amended her filing to ask that a third-party bank control her son's estate.
"I know what you know," Ellen Aguiar told assembled media, defending herself outside the courtroom. "I know that he went out on his boat and the boat came back and he didn't. The attacks on my character and on my son's are devastating at this time."
Scherer said recent events have been tough on Jamie Aguiar, who reportedly married her husband before he made his fortune.
"She's got four kids and herself, and she's alone, and she's got a mess."
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