The Volokh Conspiracy
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Divorcing Husband (a Lawyer) May Have Dissipated $300K of Family Assets on TikTok Gifts (Which He Says Was a Business Strategy)
From M.B. v. C.B., decided May 15 by Westchester County (N.Y.) trial court judge James Hyer:
During the conference Plaintiff's counsel indicated that his client was concerned about Defendant's continued erratic behavior including his use of the social media platform TikTok (hereinafter "TikTok"), including representations made during recordings of Defendant on TikTok that he had gifted significant sums of funds believed to be in excess of twenty or thirty thousand dollars:
"TikTok has the ability for individuals to give gifts to other people on TikTok, so you go live on TikTok and then it's showing what you're doing live. [Defendant], from what we can tell, has given away well in excess of twenty or thirty thousand dollars in the last two months to just third parties, individuals, and bragged about it very openly. We have recorded video of all of this. He talks about giving Pegasuses, giving universes. A universe costs $532 to the individual who gives it and it has a cash value that's redeemable by the person who receives it of around $500."
Plaintiff's counsel marked as Court Exhibit 1 a summary of certain TikTok recordings wherein he noted the following including asserted quotes of Defendant:
… "I'm gonna pegasus" with a woman as the background. Pegasus is a virtual gift you get after reaching the highest "gifter level." … To reach level 50 gifter, you need to spent a significant amount of real money on gifts (estimated around $845,000.00). You can then send Pegasus during a tick tok live….
"That's the Lord Marcellus one. I don't even know how many of these I sent but I send a lot of these. I sent a lot of Lord Marcellus'. That's a vault gift. It's the best gift you can send other than the Pegasus" … Lord Macellus is a Tik Tok gift worth $10 ….
"You wanna be like me. You wanna drop the uni's. You wanna drop the vaults." … Tick tok Universe $500 ….
Plaintiff's counsel also played several TikTok recordings of Defendant, one of which was asserted to have been made the day before the conference referring to this action, two of which were asserted to have been recorded just prior to the last conference in this courthouse with one being filmed in the hallway outside the courtroom and the other being filmed in the courthouse bathroom:
"I would note, your Honor, this is all while my client is not receiving child support, spousal support, has received no temporary counsel fees.
"We have no idea what the scope of the money that he has dissipated is except these very specific statements that he has made that are all recorded and that are all publicly accessible, talking about all the gifts that he has given, all of this money that he's giving away and, respectfully, and, again, I'm not trying to inflame things, but [Defendant], aside from TikTok streaming live here in the courthouse in direct contradiction to the rules, last night was on TikTok live and made the following statements which, again, we have recorded. "CJB got Court tomorrow. Ain't no mother fucking judge check me. CJB is vibing right now. Don't worry about the consequences." Respectfully, Judge, aside from ignoring an array of Court Orders, as an attorney and officer of the Court, [Defendant] going live on TikTok the night before Court and saying that your Honor is not going to check him and that he has Court tomorrow and then live streaming from the hallway of the courthouse, this demonstrates the level of sort of recklessness and total lack of regard for the rules and the orders of your Honor."
{Notably, signage has been posted prominently in several locations in the hallway leading to the courtroom where the last conference was held wherein these recordings were made including the following directive, "Court Rules prohibit the use of cameras or audio/visual recording devices in this courthouse without permission from the Court administrator or, in a courtroom the presiding judge."}
While these recordings were being played by the Court, this Court visually observed Defendant bobbing his head to the music playing in the background and mouthing the words to what appeared to be song lyrics he was signing in the videos. When asked by the Court if these videos were of the Defendant, he responded that they were of his "persona" for which he referred to himself in the third-person providing the following responses:
THE COURT: [Defendant], you have been handed what's been marked as Court Exhibit Number 1 and you have had the opportunity in here in Court to listen to recordings of TikTok, what appear to be TikTok recordings that you have made. Were you on those TikTok videos that were seen by the Court earlier today?
[Defendant]: My parody persona was on the videos, but yes, my physical being and my likeness was on those, yes, Judge.
THE COURT: Thank you very much. There was an allegation that you made two TikTok videos in this courthouse today before this Court appearance in the hallway and also in the bathroom of the courthouse; is that correct?
[Defendant]: Yes. My parody self made those, CJB made those, Judge.
THE COURT: Is CJB not you?
[Defendant]: Well, the whole TikTok thing is a public act, so yes, I mean, sitting here as an attorney before your Honor, this is [Defendant]. What you see on there is CJB times three because I have three accounts, so he's not even referencing — there's XXXX, XXXX and XXXX and I get banned usually on two of them. I got banned from XXXX and XXXX, so that was on XXXX —
THE COURT: Why did you get banned?
[Defendant]: Because TikTok has — it's interesting, so I smoke tobacco. Actually, last night, I got banned and if you guys were watching, I held up a cigarette and I got banned within thirty seconds, so you can't smoke tobacco on there. Also, too, some of it is construed as, let's say, aggressive tendencies. They have very, let's say, tight community guidelines, so if I set my live streams to open which is eighteen or — sorry, anybody can come to those, they are much more — they are stricter. If you set your own restriction as to 18 plus, you could basically do whatever you want, but lately, I have been trying to get more traction. This is, essentially, to address the gifting, they're not just gifts. These are business expenses.
We're trying to get a media company off the ground, that's what we're doing; CJB Media, across the world, United States, Germany, Philippines, VietNam, Brazil, a lot of different countries, Judge. And the one that we made before, in the courtroom that we were referencing, some of the ladies that are going to be coming to the United States to see CJB, to do this whole thing in Central Park and do some stuff, people are already getting visas, they're already making it happen. This is an actual real business expense. This is not just looking at me, I'm a thirsty dad, broken hearted, hopeless romantic, giving gifts, so we're trying to get something off the ground and the Plaintiff is quite aware of that because we even went live the first couple of lives and we got a few gifts.
THE COURT: So is your position that CJB is your alter ego?
[Defendant]: In terms of public persona and what we do, yes, I mean, I'm a humble dad. I had — before April 9th which was my second daughter's birthday, I was giving baths and chilling with my daughters and hanging out with my son who I would love to see, of course, but after April 9th, you know, we basically, you know, we stepped it up a little bit because, you know, at this point, my back is against the wall a little bit when it comes to how I feel about how my public persona should be. For the last thirteen years, I've kind of sheltered myself. I also freestyle rap. I give inspiration, hope and expression.
While characterizing his TikTok expenditures as investment rather than gifts, Defendant confirmed that he has spent at least $300,000.00 on TikTok since February of this year, approximately $275,000.00 of which was spent following the commencement of this litigation, while advising that it is nearly impossible to track when TikTok gifts are made ….
When asked if he had read the Automatic Orders and the provisions of the Preliminary Conference Order pertaining to the Automatic Orders Defendant confirmed that he had, and when asked if he felt that he had complied with the Automatic Orders by spending nearly $300,000.00 on TikTok expenditures he responded, "Yes, because I want to do well for myself and my family. If this actually works, we'll be millionaires." …
Plaintiff (wife) had also claimed:
As will be set forth in detail herein, the Defendant's mental health has deteriorated over the last several weeks to the point where, at the risk of hyperbole, it is beyond dispute that he is most likely an extreme danger to me, our three (3) young children and the community-at-large. I would note, at the outset, that although the allegations I make in this document may seem extreme and hyperbolic — every allegation I make regarding the Defendant's statements and behaviors is supported by audio recordings, video recordings or screenshots of text messages from the Defendant. The Court need not "take my word" for anything alleged herein. I am unclear what is happening to the Defendant right now — and whether his erratic and aggressive behavior is the result of a severe mental health issue, a substance abuse issue or some combination of the two.…
As will be set forth in detail herein, the Defendant has engaged in repeated acts of domestic violence / intimate partner abuse against me with increasing frequency and severity over the last several months including abuse in the direct presence of our young children and while the children were in the residence. The Defendant has also exponentially increased his abuse of cannabis and possibly other drugs — attempting as recently as this past weekend to interact with our children immediately after having smoked a significant amount of cannabis…
The Defendant has routinely called me vile and profane names including, but not limited to: "cunt", "bitch", "retard", "fucking dirty bitch", "lazy fucking bitch", "ungrateful cunt", "fucking piece of fucking shit", "stupid fucking bitch", "retarded" and other similar term….
