Re: 3/30/01 - [TMRT] Orange County Register: Dot-com duo: For love or money?; Steven Rebeil saw the bottom drop out of 2theMart.com -- and his relationship.
Dot-com duo: For love or money?
Steven Rebeil saw the bottom drop out of 2theMart.com -- and his relationship.
May 30, 2001
By GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register
His net worth was about $130 million.
She sold art and made about $40,000 per year.
Together, Steven Rebeil and Jennifer Young enjoyed a golden lifestyle.
They had a $343,000 Orange County condominium, paid for in cash. A lavish apartment on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. And a company, 2TheMart.com, poised to scale the heights of "dot-com'' mania.
The young couple went on shopping sprees, took exotic vacations, attended fancy parties.
They traveled in Rebeil's private jet and on glitzy yachts.
They had a baby boy whom they named Cole Christopher.
But their relationship crashed last year along with the Irvine-based auction Web site, which now is mired in bankruptcy and facing lawsuits from irate shareholders.
In a civil complaint, Young alleges that Rebeil, 38, didn't tell her he was married and that he reneged on a promise to take care of Young and their son forever.
"You don't have to worry about anything again," Rebeil told Young, according to the lawsuit.
"You know I'm not going to let the mother of my child suffer."
Neither Young nor Rebeil were available for comment.
Young seeks half of the property the two acquired during their relationship, which began in October 1997.
Those assets could be substantial.
Rebeil's holdings include an interest in a number of casinos in Nevada, a $6 million house in Aspen, a $20 million home in Irvine Cove and a large ranch in Utah, according to the complaint, recently filed in Orange County Superior Court.
CHECKERED PAST
Rebeil, a would-be Internet guru whose 2TheMart.com marked his first Web-based venture, has a checkered business past.
In 1997, he and a business partner were denied licenses to operate a casino by the Nevada Gaming Commission, which found the two men to be unqualified to be officers of a public company.
The commission found Rebeil and Dominic J. Magliarditi to be "not of good character, honesty and integrity.''
Rebeil was chairman of 2TheMart, and Magliarditi was chief executive.
Back in October 1997, Rebeil and Young were just two people in love.
The couple's courtship was "intense,'' according to the lawsuit, which outlines the following alleged events:
Two months after they met, Young quit her job after Rebeil promised he would take care of her and marry her.
He told her that he was not married but that he had a common-law wife living in Nevada. They had one child and were separated, he said.
Young and Rebeil lived together in the Orange County condominium for about a year, starting in mid-1998. He gave her between $4,000 and $6,000 for monthly living expenses.
"Steven continually promised he would buy Jennifer a multimillion-dollar house, and that he would provide her with lifetime support, and share his earnings with her to provide a lavish lifestyle consistent with what he was accustomed to," the lawsuit says.
Young took care of the house and cooked for Rebeil. She even acted as his secretary.
A SECOND FAMILY
Unbeknownst to Young, Rebeil and his wife, Jilly, had a baby boy, Chase William, in September 1999. The couple married in 1988 in Clark County, Nev., records show.
One month later, Young went to work for Rebeil when he was getting 2TheMart.com off the ground.
She was promised $400,000 in stock. Rebeil also sold $30,000 of the stock to Young's father. The couple moved to New York in November 1999. Rebeil again promised to marry her.
"Your ship has come in,'' he told her, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, Rebeil shipped his wife and their children to an Irvine Cove mansion that had been promised to Young, according to the lawsuit.
About the same time, Rebeil loaned his own company, 2TheMart, $2 million after a dismal stock sale failed to raise needed capital.
The cash infusion didn't work, and 2TheMart.com became a poster child for Internet investor euphoria run amok. The company never got close to its goal of competing with the likes of eBay.
As for Young, she never got close to the riches and security she believes were promised to her and her son.
In her lawsuit, she notes that Rebeil purchased a $2 million life insurance policy, naming her the beneficiary of $1 million and her son, Cole, the beneficiary of the other $1 million.
And she admits that Rebeil provides her with a condominium, gives her about $4,000 a month for living expenses, and continues to take her and her son on "extensive'' shopping sprees.
So why the lawsuit?
Like 2TheMart.com, it may have to do with expectations.
The couple "enjoyed and maintained ... a lavish standard of living,'' according to the lawsuit.
The problem may be that Rebeil told her the good life would never end.
Register news researcher Eugene Balk and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
ocregister.com |
