Ex-girlfriend of billionaire Donald Sterling must return expensive gifts

Marcy Oster

(JTA) — The ex-girlfriend of Donald Sterling must return millions of dollars in gifts from the former Los Angeles Clippers owner.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that V. Stiviano must return to the Sterling Family Trust such items as luxury cars, including a Ferrari and a Bentley, a $1 million home and some $800,000 in cash.

Shelly Sterling filed the lawsuit against Stiviano claiming that she manipulated Donald Sterling into showering her with the gifts.

Stiviano claimed in court that she was entitled to the gifts because the Sterlings were separated when they were given, but the judge pointed out that the couple did not live apart during that time and were “estranged,” as Shelly Sterling had said during a television interview last year with Barbara Walters.

Donald Sterling was forced to sell the Clippers last year and was banned for life and heavily fined by the NBA after he made racist comments to Stiviano that were secretly recorded and made public.