NY Times: For Richer or for ... Not Quite as Rich

[marmar]

For Richer or for ... Not Quite as Rich

By DAVID SEGAL
Published: January 23, 2010


EVERY era needs an emblematic tycoon, and for the age of the Great Recession, you couldn’t do better than Peter M. Brant.

Never a figure of national renown, Mr. Brant has for years loomed large in that slender niche of American culture where vast wealth meets good taste and winter tans. In Savile Row suits and with plenty of alpha-male style, he spent the last decade quietly expanding his newsprint manufacturing empire, borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars and gobbling up mills until his company, White Birch, was the second-largest player in North America.

By 2008, he seemed, like our economy, to be a spectacularly efficient money-making machine — a billionaire with a vast art collection and his very own polo team. His personal life appeared just as charmed. In 1995, the former Victoria’s Secret model Stephanie Seymour became his second wife, and the couple and their four children shuttled to homes in Greenwich, Conn., Sagaponack, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla. It all looked pretty glamorous.

It looks different today.

There is no telling which is now costing Mr. Brant more — his business or his marriage. But that is only because his business is privately held, whereas his marriage is exploding in a way that could hardly be more public. “Seymour-Brant Divorce Mayhem,” read a headline in June in The New York Post. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/media/24brant.html?ref=business

[dkf]

1. You'd think she made enough money of her own.

It's kind of sad.

[fasttense]

2. Interesting article on how a spoiled little rich boy (he flunked out of college),

leverages his family's money and reputation into even more money and a bad reputation. He was convicted of being a tax cheat and after serving time, he went on to get involved in another tax evasion scam.

And then during his midlife crisis, he gets tired of his wife who bore him 5 children and buys a trophy wife. He is so hot for her body, he forgets to get a pre-nup. His friend Donald Trump tried to tell him.

But despite his falling fortunes he still has hundreds of millions of dollars, nine children, a comb over and a big nose.

Yes, the perfect example of today's Robber Baron.