Have you heard about the family drama dividing the Bulgari fashion empire? It’s an insane legal fight between two sisters, which has engulfed at least a half dozen top law firms and huge Wall Street players. Naturally, the feared litigator David Boies is involved. And now, of course, there’s a secret marriage twist.

Back in 2020, Ilaria Bulgari learned that she was the beneficiary of two trusts that had been established during her parents’ long-ago divorce. The trusts contained substantial assets, which shouldn’t be surprising given the incredible success of the nearly 150-year-old luxury brand. (In 2011, the Bulgari family sold a controlling stake of its company to LVMH in an all-stock deal worth more than $5 billion.) But Ilaria, despite receiving $40 million after her mother died, began to suspect her older sister, Veronica Bulgari, of cheating her. 

In legal documents, Ilaria outlines her various grievances with Veronica, the trustee of the family estate: that she allegedly withheld distributions from the trust to compel her to surrender rights; that she refused to give her full access to financial records said to contain “irregularities” like missing tax payments; and finally, that Veronica was behind the transfer of money and real estate holdings. Ilaria eventually hired Boies, who blanketed Wall Street with subpoenas to find out more about the administration of the Bulgari fortune.