Silicon Valley Tycoon Convinces Court His Wife’s Scam is Designed to Avoid Pre-Nup

Clyde Berg and his brother Carl Berg are two very wealthy men. They developed and built huge campuses for a number of successful Silicon Valley businesses, and sold their firm for $1.3 billion. But the old adage that money does not buy happiness is clearly illustrated in the divorce proceedings between Clyde, age 75, and his estranged wife, Ellena Berg, age 38. The first obvious comment is why a man in his 70’s thought he could sustain a relationship with a woman more than thirty years younger than him.

After ten years of marriage and an iron-clad prenup, Ms. Berg accused her husband of vicious abuse, including outfitting her with a spiked dog collar, tying her to a bed, and sexually assaulting her with a golf putter while she was nine months pregnant, an attack where she testified she was restrained for two days before freeing herself. But the presiding judge wasn’t buying what Ellena was selling and determined that she fabricated the entire incident. In dismissing the charges at a preliminary hearing Judge Ron M. Del Pozzo said Ms. Berg’s evidence “was not worthy of belief” and queried whether it was “flat-out-lying” or the product of being mentally ill.

Judge Del Pozzo rejected Ms. Berg’s absurd suggestion that while tied down she dialed 911 with her tongue borrowing a quip from Johnny Cochrane in the OJ Simpson trial: “If the tongue can’t dial, there’s not going to be a trial.”

As for Ms. Berg and her lawyers they retaliated by suggesting to the Judge that the District Attorney’s office was bowing to the “political and economic power” of her husband, a charge that was vigorously denied by the Crown who said: “We make prosecutorial decisions based on the evidence in the case, and not the money in the defendant’s bank account.” Of their client’s testimony, which consisted of ” I can’t remember” said forty-four times in ninety minutes, they argued that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of her husband’s abuse of her and ill-treatment from the prosecutor’s office.

Meanwhile, Mr. Berg registered his displeasure with the Crown office saying they should have dropped the charges against him and not proceeded with the weeklong hearing, contending he was the victim of his wife’s scam designed to circumvent the pre-nuptial agreement signed by her.

The pre-nup signed by the parties provided Ms. Berg with $2 million dollars if their marriage ended. She earned $200,000 a year for her trouble. Mr. Berg spent nine days in jail and later spent months with an electronic ankle bracelet, and was ousted from his home following his wife’s report to the police. But he was most distressed about the removal of his beloved Weimaraner dog who was taken away from him as his wife also accused him of beating the dog.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang