Cuculo has received over $250,000 of the money that Ardito took from the trusts and most of the rest of the money has been accounted for, according to representations made in court today. Among the fees that Gibney has approved being paid from Eifrig’s trust is the $60,000-plus charged by Rhode Island lawyer Janet Mastronardi, who was hired by Ardito in her unsuccessful bid to become her mother’s guardian.

But Boren said today that Ardito -- without court authorization -- may have used up to $21,000 of her mother’s money to sue her mother in Virginia. He told the court he wants to see copies of the checks Ardito has written since her mother’s arrival in Rhode Island.

“I just don’t trust the numbers,” he said of the accounting that Ardito furnished to him this week.

Boren told the court that over the past year and a half, Ardito has repeatedly minimized how much money her mother has.

In the first accounting she offered to the court on Aug. 24 -- less than two months ago -- he said, Ardito claimed there was $500,733 in her mother’s trust.

She said in that her mother forgets about money she’s spent and “details. She verbally told me what her assets were and I believed it. Much later, when I roughly added up her assets, I realized they were less than she had said. I have never heard the figure $735,000 until now,” Ardito wrote -- a reference to what Boren claimed Eifrig was claiming she had in savings.

In the most recent accounting, provided to Boren by Ardito through her Virginia lawyer on Monday, Ardito asserted that her mother has $745,085.59 in her trust.
Boren zeroed in on the contradiction in today’s hearing -- which Ardito chose not to attend.

“There’s a $245,000 difference” between what she accounted for in August and what she says is there now, he told the judge. It’s clear, he said, that “she did not intend to let anyone know of that additional $245,000” and would not have revealed without his pressing for it.

James Philip Head, Ardito’s Virginia lawyer, said today he would have no comment on Boren’s remarks.

“I can see where he’s going with this,” he added.

Gibney asked how much time Boren would need to continue his investigation of Eifrig’s unaccounted for money. He asked to have three weeks. The judge continued the matter until Nov. 1 – at which time, Boren says, he is going to press his motion that Ardito be held in contempt.

During today’s hearing, Boren told the judge that Ardito has offered to repay her mother $5,000 of the money she spent on her Viginia attorney -- but that she wants a $1,900 deduction because she thinks her mother should pick up the tab for trips she, her daughter and her mother’s sister made to Rhode Island to visit her.

Boren said that he thinks Ardito actually used much more than $5,000 of her mother’s money to pay her Virginia attorney -- so may owe substantially more than that in restitution, perhaps as much as $21,000 based on the accounting she submitted this week.

Gibney said she would not approve the $1,900 that Ardito was seeking from her mother for the visits to see her. “You don’t owe her anything,” she told Boren and Cuculo.

Cuculo told the judge that Ardito’s actions have been very disturbing to her.

“I think she owes us,” she told the judge.

Before adjourning the hearing, Gibney told the lawyers, “I think we all need to think about what Step 2 will be if there is no explanation” from Ardito regarding the gaps in her accounting.

“I’ll ask for your input,” she said.