People sell assets without the other person's consent all the time. It happened in my divorce. I'm a CT resident.
If it's their own name then it can happen. It may be against the automatic dissolution order but if they don't have to have the other person sign off, because the property is jointly held, it can be done even if they're not supposed to.
Of course they can do so with a court order/permission. They can also do so without order for the "necessities of life" in CT which includes attorneys fees, along other things like mortgage payments, rent, etc.
Otherwise, they have to pay back the community property interest or what they took, to the other spouse.
Sometimes what they took is balanced out via the award of other assets, or the assignment of debt that still doesn't seem fair to some people.
Sometimes what they took is predominately separate property (acquired before marriage or by gift or devise), so their won't be reimbursement of an equal division and the other party feels cheated even though legally it's not theirs, though they thought it was.
The sad cases are where one party hides income (like here), and the other spouse can't prove it and doesn't have the funds to do so (unlike here. But this case shows how hard and costly it can be). The court can't rule against someone in such cases without absolute proof.
Let me put it this way: 10 times out of 10, when someone comes to my office complaining about an unjust ruling and wants to have it set aside, it was legal and based on the law. 8 times out of 10 the client actually agreed to the judgment via a negotiated settlement! ("I was tired. I was emotional. My attorney didn't advise me correctly. I was pressured. I ran out of money and gave up.")
But what we have to remember here is:
1. Any property for which Jennifer is on title, he can't sell.
2. Everyone knows about this case and isn't going to get involved in selling property (that she's not on title to) that FD tries to sell that's involved in the divorce.
3. He can't liquidate assets to pay for CRIMINAL attorney's fees. Only for the family law case.
4. You better bet that mama Farber and her team of attorneys are going to work hard to ensure that FD is stopped no matter what he tries to do.