Disclaimer:  Chef heard this through his half sister's boyfriend. 

Seems the BM went on a spending spree with the tax return AFTER the divorce was filed.   Obviously not allowed so Neanderthal's (Mr. Neutral's son) attorney insisted that the BM pay back 50% of what she spent of the refund.   This was their first appearance--custody and CS to be decided at a later date.

I "reminded" Chef that the Gir did exactly this too when he was getting divorced; only difference being that Chef INSISTED that he NOT have an attorney to represent him and therefore the Girhippo took FULL advantage by keeping all the stolen funds.

The Girhippo stole a HELL of a lot more than 50% of a tax refund, yet still got 100% custody and max plus CS.   She stole 15K of college funds,  ran up the marital debt, stuck Chef with a van payment and filed an erroneous tax return then tried to stick him with interest and penalties.   She then kept all of Chef's personal effects, sold everything, had Chef sign a quit claim deed, sold the marital home and kept 100% of the proceeds.

Chef was just going to take the IRS part up the tailpipe until I entered the scene, filed innocent spouse on his behalf, got the penalties down to a reasonable level AT WHICH TIME CHEF WAS STILL WILLING (read: ME) to PAY IT FOR THE GIRHIPPO! 

I said HELL NO and had the Gir write a check out to ME because I didn't trust her one iota.  She easily wrote a check out for the whole amount (Chef was giving her approx 90% of his salary at the time)  and the Gir has a rich grandfather who backed her failed business..

Keep that popcorn popping...