The estranged wife of former NBA star Sebastian Telfair claims he is trying to liquidate all his assets before he checks into jail before a court can divide them up in their divorce.
As The Blast first reported, Samantha Telfair filed to end the couple’s marriage last month. She is seeking sole legal and physical custody of the couple’s two kids and wants the court to award her spousal support.
Telfair was convicted in April on charges of weapons possession and faces up to 15 years behind bars. A hearing is scheduled for next month where he could be sentenced but his lawyer has said he has new evidence that he believes exonerates.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Samantha is seeking an order against Sebastian to stop him from allegedly emptying their accounts. She claims that Sebastian has been “slowly liquidating our community property assets.”
Samantha claims that after filing for divorce, she began to search for all of the couple’s accounts.
“To my surprise,” Samantha claims, there were many accounts I was unaware of, most, if not all accumulating value during the course of our marriage.”
Samantha, who says the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement, claims these accounts should be considered community property.
She says that one account used to have $520,000 in it; now it has zero. Samantha also claims Sebastian took $197,000 out from another account without her knowledge.
Samantha says she has “strong reason” to believe that Sebastian will continue to “liquidate as much as he can prior to having to turn himself in.”
She explains, “I am fearful that if I am not able to preserve the remaining community property funds, there will not be a proper division of assets for myself and our children when our dissolution of marriage is nearing completion.”
But the judge denied Samantha’s request, essentially saying it was unnecessary because she already served Sebastian with divorce papers.
In doing so, the judge stated that standard family law restraining orders are in effect, which prohibits the kind of behavior she is alleging.
As The Blast first reported, Samantha got a temporary restraining order against Sebastion last year after she claimed he showed up to her house on January 12, 2018 and smashed her windshield and destroyed a video doorbell device.
According to court documents, Samantha said Sebastian “has become increasingly hostile, unstable and violent.” She also said Sebastian had “texted to me that he wants to die on numerous occasions and I believe that he is suicidal.”
Samantha said of Sebastian and their two children, “The children should not be exposed to his violence and rants about his suicidal tendencies.”
Sebastian Telfair was a prized recruit coming out of high school and skipped college to go straight to the NBA. He was a first-round pick of the Portland Trailblazers but never lived up to the hype. He bounced around the league for several years and last played in the NBA in 2014.
