The lovebirds were vultures — or so says an ex-wife.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and former City Councilwoman Melinda Katz scammed Sliwa’s ex-wife out of more than $400,000 in a bizarre child-support payment scheme, a $1.4 million lawsuit charges.
Mary Sliwa says the famous anti-crime activist used their marital assets to make inflated support payments to Katz, who had two children by in vitro fertilization — with pal Sliwa as her sperm donor.
The angry ex-wife says Sliwa also cheated on her with Katz, who’s now a leading contender for Queens borough president. Mary Sliwa says her ex made the bloated child support payments because he was planning to divorce her and shack up with Katz.
“Curtis Sliwa is an inveterate, world-class liar,” says the suit, which lists the dates and locations of numerous alleged trysts between the co-defendants.
“This is a sad, frivolous lawsuit,” said Nathan Smith, spokesman for Katz’s campaign. “Unfortunately, it is an attempt to use a political campaign and false innuendo as leverage to publicly rehash a long ago settled divorce.”
Efforts to reach Sliwa and Katz were unsuccessful Thursday.
Katz received $96,000 a year tax free for several years starting in 2008, says the lawsuit against Sliwa, 59, and the Queens politician, 47.
Now Mary Sliwa, 59, and the special-needs child she had with the red beret-wearing media personality are that much the poorer, according to the suit, which demands $405,000 back, plus interest and $1 million in damages.
She says when Katz had her first in vitro baby in 2008, Sliwa denied any intimate relationship with her and said his sperm had been “frozen” years before.
“During the next several months, the co-defendants conspired … to drain marital assets so Curtis Sliwa could leave plaintiff in due course, join his mistress, Melinda Katz, and have a ‘nest egg’ of marital assets,” the suit states. The suit also says Sliwa convinced his wife “to use significant marital assets” to pay support for the Katz child.
Mary Sliwa says her husband was required to pay no more than $1,700 a month to Katz, plus potential discretionary fees assessed by the court. But Sliwa paid $8,000, plus $1,150 to provide “his mistress” with a life insurance policy, according to the suit. That amounted to more than half of his income, according to the astonishing litigation.
Sliwa had a second in vitro child with Katz in 2011. He and Mary Sliwa divorced in 2012 and he now lives with Katz and their two children in Forest Hills.
Mary Sliwa says she believed her then-husband and agreed to the payments because she “wanted to keep the marriage together ... trusted him,” and thought the amounts were legitimate. Sliwa was previously married to Lisa Evers, a FOX 5 News reporter.
Katz’s campaign website has this to say about her personal life: “Melinda lives with her partner, radio personality and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, and their two children, Carter and Hunter. They are raising their children in the same Forest Hills house Melinda grew up in.”
By Barbara Ross AND Daniel Beekman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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