Ira Schacter (William Farrington)
The $215,000 ring (Facebook)
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This guy must be tone deaf.
A prominent Manhattan lawyer at a white-shoe firm bought his Playboy-bunny fiancée a $215,000 diamond engagement ring — but refuses to pay for his teenage daughter’s $12,000 hearing aids, The Post has learned.
Ira Schacter, 51, who works for the powerhouse firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, is stuck in a vicious divorce battle with his estranged wife, Janice, 48.
The scorned wife says that while Schacter was lavishing his bombshell fiancée, Lace Rose Allenius, 26, with bling, he was ignoring a 2010 court order that gives Janice Schacter “legal decision-making” for the “physical auditory care to the extent provided by a doctor, audiologist or hearing-aids provider.”
“I don’t understand how a father can give a $215,000 ring to a Playboy girl and then deny his daughter’s hearing aids,” Janice told The Post. “Maybe someone can explain it to me.”
The hearing aids were bought for Arielle Schacter, 17, who suffers from hearing loss and needs the devices from Minneapolis firm Starkey.
While admitting his client has refused to pay the hearing-aid bill, Ira Schacter’s lawyer, Ashish Joshi, insists that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laura E. Drager has said he is not responsible for expenses unless he gives prior approval.
“I love my daughter dearly, and her medical condition and her needs are of paramount importance to me,” Schacter said.
He declined further comment.
Drager has not yet ruled on the issue but has said at least once in court that Ira must give prior approval for unusual expenses, according to a court transcript.
But Janice added that her husband “claims I didn’t provide documentation and didn’t consult him. Is this about me or is this about his daughter? The court order is clear — that he has to pay for hearing aids.”
A mediator has to resolve the issue.
What Schacter did pay for was Allenius’ ring for their engagement, which she broke off two months ago.
Allenius, who was a Playboy “co-ed of the week” in 2004, promptly returned the 8.5-carat ring and said she and Ira remain the best of friends.
“I don’t know anything about the issue with the hearing aids. This is the first time that I’m hearing of it,” Allenius said. “I wish all the best for the entire Schacter family.”
She said she doesn’t know whether he sold the ring she returned.
“I can’t imagine that Ira would not pay for Arielle’s hearing aids. I know he has always paid for her hearing aids in the past. He’s done tremendous things for both his children,” Allenius said.
Allenius was a 19-year-old Florida co-ed when she posed nude for Playboy in 2004. Before her engagement to Schacter, she dated actor Matt Dillon for two years.
She’s currently working as a florist in Manhattan and caring for her 3-year-old daughter.
Schacter’s lawyer said his client provides Janice with a lifestyle fit for a queen.
Joshi said Ira pays her $60,000 every month — a sum she disputes — for maintenance for her and their children in their $3.2 million Upper East Side townhouse.
Janice, he said, also takes expensive vacations, including a recent trip to South Africa and one to Europe two years ago during which her son racked up an $11,000 cellphone bill.
“It was ridiculous,” Joshi said.
He also pays tuition for his daughter and 13-year-old son at expensive private schools, Joshi said.
“Mr. Schacter has said to the court, ‘I’m not a checkbook; I’m not an ATM; I’m a father.’ He has to be consulted in advance,” Joshi said.