A member of one of the richest families in Europe spent thousands at a trendy burlesque bar while failing to pay any money in child support for his two young daughters, a family court heard yesterday.
Bjoern von Siemens – whose great-grandfather founded the German electronics and telecommunications giant worth over £100bn – charged over £33,000 on his credit card while visiting The Box nightclub in New York and London.
The club in London’s Soho has a minimum spend of between £2,000 and £3,000 a night and is known for erotic and burlesque shows.
The lavish spending was revealed as part of a hearing at the Family Court into Mr von Siemen’s failure to pay any child support maintenance for his children, aged two and three, following the end of his three-and half-year marriage.
His estranged wife Leah, 36, attended a court hearing in Central London as her lawyer attempted to have Mr von Siemens ruled in contempt of court for failing to pay the child support.
Her 41-year-old ex-husband failed to attend the hearing and submitted a medical note in German to excuse his absence.
The court was told that he had been at an awards ceremony the evening before the hearing at the court in Holborn, central London.
His lawyer Grant Armstrong said he had agreed to pay the full arrears of £100,000 by October 18 with the contempt of court application stayed.
Prior to the agreement details of his ‘shocking’ spending were laid bare in a skeleton argument presented to the court by Mrs von Siemen’s counsel Joe Rainer.
The court was told the couple had a pre-nup agreement with Mr von Siemen’s assets at the time of the marriage listed as £46.5m with an annual income up to £800,000.
Since splitting from his wife, the court document revealed that he has not paid any child maintenance of £15,000 a month.
The document stated that he has continued to live a life of luxury with private jets, extravagant jewellery purchases, luxury cars and extensive high-end travel.
Mr Rainer wrote in his submission that Mr von Siemen’s has racked up legal fees of £600,000 as part of the divorce proceedings.
Von Siemens has claimed through his lawyers that his annual income is far below the amount registered in the pre-nup.
Mr Rainer wrote in his submission: ‘The complicating feature of this case is the vast divergence between the presentation of his wealth in the pre-nup agreement and the marital standard of living which was extraordinary even by the standard this court is used to seeing.’
An examination of Mr von Siemens spending revealed that during the months he failed to pay any maintenance he spent £21,000 in one night at The Box nightclub in New York city.
He also spent £10,000 on a stay at the celebrity haunt of the Soho club.
Other spending included £12,000 at The Box in London and £4,500 on home gym equipment.
‘Scrutiny of statements shows relentless expenditure on high end restaurants, hotels, personal Amazon purchases, private chauffer services and oddly, Deliveroo,’ the document states.
‘His answer to this is to say that this expenditure is almost entirely for business purposes. The court should not be fooled by this half-baked obfuscation.’
The skeleton argument said von Siemens uses company credit cards linked to a Berlin based company called Lindberg Equity and Management. He also has access to a family trust known as BVS.
Von Siemens is the founder of a health care company called Caresyntax, a global leader in surgical analytics and automation.
It is the company’s aim to make surgery safer and their data platform is used in more than 2,800 operating rooms worldwide.
Von Siemen’s great-grandfather founded the electronics giant in 1847 and the company is estimated to be worth over £110billion. Family members share millions in dividend payouts from the multi billion turnover.
His Harvard educated ex-wife, who attended court with her mother, is an investor working in the health care industry.
In the 15-page document submitted to the court it revealed that von Siemens is living in a £25,000 a month flat in central London and last year had given his Romanian girlfriend named as Beatrice Iordache £150,000.
Other spending included £1,500 on clothes from the luxury men’s store Boggi in Milan.
‘The evidence shows that (he) can spend as he wishes on the credit cards which are paid down by monthly direct debit from funds that must be sitting in companies derived from (his) work,’ wrote Mr Rainer.
Family Court judge Evans-Gordon agreed to allow Mr von Siemens to pay the arrears by October 18 with a date for a another hearing yet to be set.