Gatti's widow wants money and the dog
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | 3:48 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Amanda Rodrigues was released from a prison in Brazil in July 2009. (Clemilson Campos, JC Images/Associated Press)The fight over deceased boxer Arturo Gatti's fortune continues in Montreal where his Brazilian wife has arrived to contest a request by the former champion's family to have his will annulled.
Gatti's relatives allege Amanda Rodrigues, 23, manipulated Gatti into leaving his entire multimillion-dollar fortune to her.
They say a new will signed just three weeks before his death is invalid and that they stood to receive more in a previous one.
Brazilian officials say Gatti committed suicide at a resort last July, but Gatti's relatives think Rodrigues is somehow responsible.
Rodrigues asked a judge Monday if she could use her late husband's luxury cars while in Montreal and whether she can obtain custody of the couple's dog which is now being cared for by Gatti's mother.
She also asked for a $150,000 each advance on support payments for her and her year-old son.
"She's asking for money because of a very precarious financial situation. She has no income, she has no assets, no liquidities," her lawyer, Pierre-Hugues Fortin, told reporters.
"We maintain that the last will and testament is the only will at this stage."
Court heard the former world champion's estate is worth $6 million to $8 million. His largest assets are in real estates, with multiple properties.
Rodrigues was held for nearly three weeks in a Brazilian jail on suspicion of murder after Gatti's body was found in a rented apartment in a resort town in the northeastern part of the country.
Authorities determined Gatti hanged himself with a bag strap that he tied around a wooden staircase column more than two metres off the ground. They say he looped it around his neck before stepping off a stool.
Gatti's relatives disputed the claim and had his body exhumed in order to conduct a second autopsy.
The full results of that autopsy have not yet been released.
