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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

Sara Buske asks law firm to admit she gave pre-nup to divorce lawyers she is now suing

Beasley

Sara Buske claims she gave the divorce attorneys she is now suing a copy of the pre-nuptial agreement she says the firm mishandled during her 2008 divorce suit.

According to requests to admit filed Jan. 27, Sara Buske claims she gave the Springfield law firm of Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Cox a copy of her pre-nuptial agreement with her former husband Thomas Buske prior to June 2008, the month she filed for divorce.

A request for admission is a document that asks a party in a lawsuit to agree or disagree with the facts put forth.

The agreement, while never produced in open court, was at the heart of arguments made by S.C. Johnson and Sons Inc. when it intervened in the Buske divorce three years ago.

Sara Buske filed to divorce her husband of more than a decade eight days after a $203.8 million civil judgment was entered against Thomas Buske in a Wisconsin court.

Thomas Buske was also facing criminal charges in Wisconsin federal court for allegedly defrauding S.C. Johnson of millions using inflated invoices from his trucking concerns.

S.C. Johnson intervened in the Madison County divorce.

The company claimed that the Buskes were colluding to defraud the court and to hide assets Thomas Buske owed under the Wisconsin judgment.

S.C. Johnson eventually filed moves asking for the production of the Buskes' prenuptial agreement, claiming it would prove the fraud.

The divorce settled before that document was ever produced.

Sara Buske took away $325,000.

A trust containing $425,000 was set up for the Buske children.

Thomas Buske was allowed to keep $50,000 in personal property.

The rest of the Buske assets went to S.C. Johnson.

Howard Feldman of the Feldman firm represented Sara Buske during the divorce.

His former client filed suit against the firm in December 2010.

In her suit, Sara Buske alleges that Feldman failed to disclose the existence of the prenuptial agreement during the divorce.

She also claims he failed to challenge it and eventually lost her money as a result.

Her 2010 suit also names her St. Louis accountants, RSM McGladrey,
Inc., for allegedly giving her bad tax advice during the divorce.

The Feldman firm claimed in its answer that Sara Buske knew about the pre-nuptial agreement and that she did not disclose it to her lawyers.

In the Jan. 27 requests for admission, Sara Buske asks that the law firm admit Howard Feldman was given a copy of the pre-nuptial agreement, that he got it prior to the divorce, and that he filed the petition for divorce June 10, 2008.

On another note in the case, attorney Daniel Konicek entered his appearance for the Feldman firm Jan. 28.

The next case management conference in the suit will be held in late February.

The accounting firm has yet to answer Sara Buske's claims.

Jarrod Beasley represents Sara Buske in the 2010 lawsuit.

Vicki Cochran and others represented Thomas Buske in the divorce.

Andrew Velloff and Thomas Keefe Jr. were among those representing
S.C. Johnson in the divorce.

The 2010 lawsuit is part of Madison County Circuit Judge Andreas Matoesian's docket.

Both Madison County Associate Judges Duane Bailey and Thomas Chapman oversaw the Buske divorce.

Chapman presided over the 2009 settlement of the divorce and subsequent proceedings in the case.

The case is Madison case number 10-L-1211.

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