Burkle laundry is hung out in court

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles court has unsealed documents revealing details of billionaire Ron Burkle's bitter divorce fight, records he went to extraordinary lengths to keep private.

The 1,200 pages of documents were made public late Friday, two days after the California Supreme Court rejected Burkle's effort to keep them under seal, which he said was necessary to protect his children's safety.

The documents include allegations by Burkle's daughter about his conduct toward his former wife. They also provide an analysis of Burkle's financial investments as of 1997, when the couple signed a postmarital agreement, and Janet Burkle's account of their household spending and property holdings.

"For the vast majority of our marriage, the last 20 of our 28-year marriage, my husband and I lived among the most lavish of American lifestyles," Janet Burkle stated in a September 2003 divorce filing.

The documents include a sworn declaration by the Burkles' adult daughter that her father had told her that his security staff had "pictures and videos" of Janet Burkle and her boyfriend having sex.

Carrie Anne Burkle, now 29, said Ron Burkle asked her and her brother John, now 25, to watch the tape, but later changed his mind.

The daughter's declaration was made in support of Janet Burkle's 2003 application for a court restraining order, which was denied.

The application accused her husband of spying on her, their young son and her boyfriend.

In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Ron Burkle's attorney, Patricia Glaser, disputed the allegations: "Mr. Burkle never told his daughter any such thing. There are no such videotapes. There was no such eavesdropping."

Glaser said the allegations had been withdrawn and the divorce court judge had ruled them inadmissible.

Burkle's security chief, Frank Renzi, in a written response to the Los Angeles Times, said there was no videotape, and that Carrie Ann Burkle had misconstrued a conversation with her father over her mother's new boyfriend, an ex-convict.

The division of the Burkles' fortune (Ronald Burkle's worth has recently been estimated at more than $2 billion) had also been fiercely contested until last week.

Lawyers for Janet Burkle argued in the documents that her husband concealed pending mergers in 1997 — when the couple signed the postmarital agreement limiting her divorce settlement to roughly $40 million — that eventually created one of the largest supermarket chains in the nation. Burkle owned the Ralphs Grocery and Food 4 Less grocery chains before selling them to Kroger Co. in 1999.

Janet Burkle claimed she was defrauded when she signed the agreement.

A state appeals court sided with Burkle on Thursday, rejecting his wife's claim that he had hidden assets.

The family's life, the unsealed records show, was up-market.

Janet Burkle, in one filing, said the couple had six homes and had accumulated at least $25 million worth of art, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent Van Gogh.

She said that in addition to a fleet of luxury vehicles, her husband owned a private 757 jet and a helicopter.

Her husband also wore hand-tailored suits and employed a valet, she said. As for her: "It was common for me to spend $15,000 at one time at Barneys, and my average monthly expense for clothing was at least $10,000 [a conservative estimate]," she said.

Burkle, in the documents, called the accounts exaggerated, saying the aircraft, for example, belonged to his company and was not used for personal trips.

The publicity-shy billionaire recently accused New York Post gossip writer Jared Paul Stern of trying to shake him down for $220,000 to ensure he was portrayed in a favorable light in the paper's Page Six column. Stern, who denied the claim, was fired.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.