In development circles, Dulos is known for a flashy, brazen style. He aggressively pursued the niche of mansions for the wealthy at a time when many builders were moving toward smaller, energy-efficient homes requiring less maintenance.
Dulos’ business and his marriage were closely intertwined. The funding from his father-in-law, Hilliard Farber, boosted Dulos’ success, cutting through red tape, allowing for smooth acquisitions and leveraged more traditional bank loans.
Hilliard Farber was a former senior vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank who went on to serve as a fellow at the Brookings Institute and form his own brokerage firm, Hilliard Farber & Co.
“Mr. Farber was extremely generous to his son-in-law over the years,” Weinstein, the West Hartford attorney who represents Farber’s estate, told The Courant earlier this month.
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In a June 2017 affidavit, Jennifer Dulos said the couple had planned to move to New Canaan “in large part because of my husband’s desire to grow his business in the Fairfield County area. We listed our home for sale and planned to move to my mother’s home in Pound Ridge, N.Y.” She said the couple enrolled the children at New Canaan Country School.
But the plan exploded, Jennifer Dulos said, when she discovered in March 2017 that her husband had been having an affair with Michelle Troconis. Jennifer Dulos told her husband she intended to move with the children to Pound Ridge.
What happened next was the product of an “irrational” mind, Jennifer Dulos said in court papers:
“My husband informed me that he decided to move [Michelle Troconis] and her daughter into the marital home and enroll [Troconis’] daughter in the private school that our children had attended for the last two years. He informed me that our children and I will continue to reside in the marital home every weekend during the summer, so that we all — his paramour and her daughter included — would be together. He also informed me that he will come and go from my mother’s residence whenever he wants during the week. Essentially, he expects to exhibit complete control over me and the children.”
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Jennifer Dulos said she was outraged to discover that Dulos had brought an unregistered gun into the house. She said she feared the children could get their hands on it. Dulos said he legally purchased the gun and intended to learn how to shoot “in case he needed to protect his family.” He said the gun was stored, unloaded, its trigger locked, in a box with three locks. But he ultimately turned the gun over to Farmington police, according to court records.
Before being jailed in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos, her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, faced a downward spiral in his business and marriage