The boss of IMAX has allegedly been partying so hard, his ex-wife cannot get a $4.5 million life insurance policy on him.
Richard Gelfond, who has helmed the larger-than-life, $1.57 billion movie theater company since 2009, has used cocaine and engaged in “excessive” drinking — causing one insurance company to reject him for a policy, first wife Linda Stein claimed in a lawsuit.
At least two other insurance companies also refused to move forward with a policy for Gelfond, 70, according to Stein, who filed the now-sealed Manhattan Supreme Court papers last week.
Stein, 70, who lives in posh Carnegie Hill steps from Central Park, and Gelfond married in 1982 and had two kids before their 2008 divorce, which required Richard to give his first wife a chunk of any retirement funds he’d receive should he retire from IMAX, she said in the litigation.
But Gelfond, who according to reports earns a base salary of $1.2 million in addition to bonuses and stocks, apparently doesn’t intend to retire anytime soon, having re-upped his contract with the company through Dec. 31, 2028, his wife said.
The pair agreed Stein could take out a life insurance police on Gelfond as an alternative to potential retirement funds — and he “has an obligation to ‘cooperate’” with her, she said in the complaint.
But his “voluntary and chronic” drinking and drug use has thwarted the effort, she contended.
Gelfond, who lives in the West Village and in 2010 remarried Peggy Bonapace, “knew or should have known” he was wrecking Stein’s chance of taking out a policy on him, she said in court papers.
She wants a court to force Gelfond to establish a $4.5 million trust for her benefit instead.
A lawyer for Gelfond denied Stein’s claims.
“The allegations are false and the claim is without merit,” said attorney Patricia Glaser.
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