What a Dump. Kasser Complains $5,200 a Month Apartment Next to Train Station is Inadequate. Tells Court She “Has No Experience in Finance.”

In the competitive world of available property listings, it’s not uncommon to hear of individuals searching for that perfect home that matches their previous standards of living. Take, for instance, State Senator Alex Kasser’s scenario, which seems to illustrate this trend vividly. Last year, she made headlines by declaring a war on privilege, yet recently, she voiced her dissatisfaction through a court motion. Kasser described her current $5,200 a month Greenwich apartment as a significant downgrade from her former “palatial…modern mansion on two manicured acres.” Amidst her ongoing divorce, Kasser is adamant about selling the marital home, where her estranged husband and children currently reside, in hopes of procuring a more spacious residence for herself from the available property listings that match her accustomed luxury.

The apartment, the Greenwich Democrat claims, makes one of her children “uncomfortable and unwilling to spend time” with her.

Kasser, elected in 2018 as Alex Bergstein before changing her surname, made the unusual decision to use her access to publicity as an elected official to fight her high-stakes divorce from Morgan Stanley investment banker Seth Bergstein. The Greenwich Democrat filed for a dissolution of her marriage in December 2018.

In July, Kasser delivered a monologue of her complaints against Seth Bergstein on the floor of the Senate during the legislature’s special session to consider a police accountability bill that Kasser supported.

Seth Bergstein has responded. He complains in a September 23rd court filing that Kasser’s desire to play out her divorce publicly and in the press negatively has consequences. Bergstein’s motion claims Kasser’s “posting extensively on Instagram announcing to everyone her relationship with her 31 year-old girlfriend without so much as letting her children know that she was doing so, giving a TEDX talk at Wesleyan, available online, during which she criticized [Seth Bergstein] and their family life, filing a motion in which she inappropriately included deceptive portions of emails and alleged misconduct by [him] which was then picked up by CNBC and many high profile networks, and changing her last name to Kasser, announcing it publicly without ever letting her children know, and then giving a press conference stating that the reason she was doing so was to ‘disassociate herself with the person she was married to.'”

Bergstein denies that his behavior toward Kasser was ever “threatening, volatile or intimidating. It is the plaintiff [Kasser] whose behavior was irrational and abusive.” He claims in a response that the $30,000 a month in alimony he pays Kasser and her additional $21,000 a month income are sufficient to afford “a more luxurious home for herself…” without forcing the sale of the home where her children live.

Seth Bergstein points out that Kasser owns “a multi-million-dollar two house compound in the two of Nantucket.” In addition, Kasser owns a home in New Milford that she designed and “spends significant amounts of time at this residence, including many weekends.”

The pending dissolution continues with disputes over the parties’ scores of millions of dollars of assets. Bergstein claims Kasser has undervalued her assets, including a $19 million trust fund. Kasser alleges that Bergstein manipulated her financial decisions throughout their decades-long marriage. She asserts in a motion that she “has no experience in finance.”

Bergstein responded that he “only began depositing his income into an account of his own name after the commencement of this actions. Prior to that, the entirety of the Defendant’s income for the entire course of the parties’ marriage was deposited into the parties’ joint accounts.” Bergstein continues, Kasser ‘stopped depositing the earnings from her investments into joint accounts after [Bergstein] found out she was having an affair with a woman from Greece in 2008.”

Bergstein says Kasser’s claim of ignorance of finance “is concerning given her claimed proficiency in finance during her successful campaign to become a Connecticut State Senator as well as her position as the Vice Chair of the Banking Committee.” Kasser is the co-chair. Bergstein points out that Kasser was an associate at a large New York law firm “for four years working on complex financial and real estate transactions.”

Kasser, according to Bergstein’s pleading, “has admitted under oath that she did not include a variety of assets on her five financial affidavits” submitted over the course of the contentious action.