Missing tycoon's mom wins control from son's wife of his $100M estate

The mother of vanished Florida tycoon, Guma Aquiar, has won a legal battle against his wife over control of the missing man’s $100 million estate.

 Ellen Aguiar filed a petition seeking control of 35-year-old Guma Aguiar’s assets last week, before the U.S. Coast Guard even called off the search for her son. He was last seen taking his fishing boat out on June 19. It washed ashore on a Fort Lauderdale Beach hours later, empty and with no sign of Guma.

In her petition, filed on June 21 in Broward County Court, Aguiar, 59, originally sought to be the sole conservator. She later revised the documents, requesting Northe Trust assume control, the Sun Sentinel reports.

ABC Guma Aguiar with his wife Jamie.

On Thursday in the same court, 10 lawyers tentatively agreed that Northe Trust should oversee most of Aguiar’s estate. The judge plans to consider the proposal by Tuesday, when the bank is expected to accept control.

Jaime Aguiar, Guma’s wife, had also filed a petition seeking conservatorship, on June 22, according to the newspaper.

 Guma Aguiar was last seen taking his fishing boat out on June 19.

In the document, she called her mother-in-law’s filing the day before “wholly premature,” as her husband had been missing for less than 48 hours. She says that the filing was the only way to “protect the interest of herself and her children from what is sadly the latest in a long line of Ellen Aguiar’s pervasive, persistent, and ill-advised attempts to disrupt the home life of Jamie, Guma, and their children and seize control of their finances.”

Jamie also alleges Aguiar had interfered with the police investigation of her missing son, by possibly deleting “critical voice and/or text messages” from Guma’s phone, the petition states.

When her husband’s possible death was discussed on Thursday, Jaime reportedly fled the courtroom in tears.

Tara Todras-Whitehill/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Guma Aguiar disappeared during a boat trip in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His fishing boat washed ashore with the engine running Tuesday night, June 19, 2012. His wallet and phone were on the boat, but Aguiar was nowhere to be found.

Guma, who recent reports have painted as a troubled but successful businessman, made his millions in the oil and gas business and had four children with Jaime.

Guma’s mother has said Jaime asked her son for a divorce in the hours before he went missing, suggesting that it may be a factor in his disappearance.

“[She] thinks he went off the deep end and got on the boat depressed [and then] jumped, fell, or is somewhere clinging to life,” Aguiar’s attoey Richard Baron told ABC News.

Aguiar insists her filing was “not a power grab,” according to the Sun Sentinel. She told the newspaper she doesn’t rely on her son’s financial support and is only trying to “do what’s right.”

Aguiar says she simply wants to protect her son’s assets and make sure business operations are run and bills and salaries are paid.