RHONJ’s Margaret Josephs and Joe Benigno have been sued for $20k by their former accountant.
On February 24, Stephen B. Wetter, a certified public accountant based in New York and New Jersey, filed a complaint against the RHONJ couple.
In the filing, Wetter claims that he was “retained by the defendants to prepare financial statements and related tax returns [from 2008 until 2019, 2020].”
He continued: “About three years ago, they stopped paying me for work performed. Eventually, I stopped working for them. “
“They say they have no money, but I believe this is untrue.”
Wetter is demanding $15k plus $5k in legal fees.
However, Marge and Joe are denying that Wetter performed “goods or services” for them.
A rep for Margaret told The U.S. Sun: “We’re confident this is going to be dismissed soon as statements Stephen made are completely false.”
“The lawsuit is completely absurd,” a source close to the RHONJ cast also tells the outlet. “It’s very suspect that he’s coming out of the woodwork now.”
Yet, Wetter insists that his lawsuit against Margaret and Joe is “not a personal thing” and is simply a “business” issue.
Wetter explains:
“I did a lot of work for them, for her company, Macbeth, and other investments…I worked for Jan (Margaret’s late husband) and his brother. I have electronic copies of tax returns and stuff that I prepared, so she’s lying. Margaret says she doesn’t have any money to pay me, but if I look her up on Google, it says she’s worth $50 million.”
The accountant also notes that he and Joe used to be “very close friends,” so this whole issue is “very disappointing.”
“I used to go to Christmas parties at the house. We would go out to dinner, we’d have drinks, and we got along very well,” he said. “And then I’ve never heard from him again.”
Wetter continued:
“I’ve been in business a long time. I’m very professional. I never had to do this. Margaret’s been involved in a lot of lawsuits. You know, she’s very litigious. They don’t pay anybody. I have copies of a lot of things that were sent by the state of New Jersey- annual filing fees. We’ll go to court. That’s no problem. We’ll see what happens.”
RHONJ airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm on Bravo.
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Stephen B. Wetter, a certified public accountant based in New York and New Jersey, filed a complaint against the RHONJ couple.
Stephen B. Wetter claims that he was not paid for the work he performed as their accountant and is demanding $15k plus $5k in legal fees.
Margaret Josephs and Joe Benigno deny that Stephen B. Wetter performed any “goods or services” for them and believe the lawsuit to be false and absurd.