You may be more accustomed to a boardroom than a courtroom.
Billionaire investor Michael Fisch struggled to stay calm as tensions boiled over in a tabloid hearing in his divorce battle this week, earning him a rebuke from a Manhattan judge, who warned the furious financier to calm down and let him talk. to the lawyers.
“Sir, please listen,” Judge Ariel Chesler told Fisch, 60, during the testy standoff in Manhattan Supreme Court, where the financial mogul and his ex-wife are debating how to divide their assets, including three mansions valued at almost 100 million dollars. on the same luxurious Hamptons street.
The jurist’s rebukes came as lawyers for Fisch – whose New York-based private equity fund American Securities manages $7 billion in assets – and philanthropist and former model Laura Roberson-Fisch, 67, They traded barbs and made explosive claims during a heated proceeding last Monday.
His ex-wife’s lawyer claimed that Fisch had been “looting art” from her home and had promised to advance her just a “dollar” of her inevitably huge divorce settlement while the legal saga continues.
Meanwhile, Fisch’s lawyer claimed that Laura, also an art patron and daughter of wealthy Seattle real estate developer Fred Roberson, recently “stalked” the wealthy executive while he was staying at the East Hamptons mansion where the estranged couple has been staying. . every other week, after she saw an unknown car in the driveway.
“She is clearly exhibiting obsessive behavior to stalk and harass him,” said Fisch’s attorney, Marilyn Chinitz of the firm Blank Rome. “It was her time at home. “She saw a car on the property and went onto the property to stalk it and see, ‘Who’s there?’”
As the judge tried to make sense of Chinitz’s various accusations, the attorney assured him that “I want to stay focused,” prompting a scathing response from Laura’s attorney, Jonathan Wolfe.
“No, it doesn’t,” Wolfe responded. “He wants it to be as lewd as possible!”
But Wolfe made several outrageous claims himself during the acrimonious proceedings, including that his client obtained a restraining order against Fisch “because he was looting art from the martial house.”
Inside sources told Page Six in February that the couple, who were married for 33 years, share four children and did not sign a prenup, own a blue-chip art collection that could be worth more than $500 million.
“He doesn’t even agree not to take women to the bed where they sleep every other week!”
Laura Roberson-Fisch attorney Jonathan Wolfe
While Fisch’s exact net worth is unclear, a source told Page Six that the financier was worth “at least $10 billion.”
However, Fisch also “only accepted a dollar advance of equitable distribution” in the case, Wolfe claimed during the Sept. 18 hearing, before launching into a more personal accusation about Fisch’s sex life.
“He doesn’t even agree not to take women to the bed where they sleep every other week!” exclaimed Wolfe.
Shortly after arguments began in the relatively drab lower Manhattan courtroom, a clearly frustrated Fisch, dressed in a blue raincoat over a black pinstriped suit, leaned back in his chair, his left hand pressed firmly to his temple. .
Art patron and philanthropist Laura Roberson-Fisch will receive a massive payout when the bitter dispute ends. Steven Hirsch
But by the end of the afternoon, he had moved to the front of his chair, leaning forward with his arms pressed against the desk in front of him.
He repeatedly signaled his displeasure by waving his hands frantically or exhaling sharply while covering his face with his hands.
Fisch spoke in court for the first time using a relatively measured tone to accuse Laura’s lawyers of weaving a “web of lies” and insisted that he had turned over sufficient records of the couple’s joint financial assets.
But the investment mogul soon struggled to stay calm as he described requests for documents from Laura’s lawyers, which he called “pure harassment.”
“They can tell you that we don’t produce it, but it’s not true!” Fisch became angry and raised his voice. “I produced everything that is reasonable and I continue to produce it!”
He then tried to interrupt Wolfe when the lawyer argued that Laura had the right to receive all of Fisch’s banking and investment records, not just the accounts Fisch’s camp considers marital.
But Fisch’s outburst drew a quick rebuke from the judge.
“Sir, sir, please listen, please,” Chesler told Fisch.
At stake are three palatial homes on East Hampton’s Further Lane, known as “Billionaire’s Row.” Dennis Clark
Fisch also exaggeratedly mouthed “that’s not true” at times as his ex’s lawyers presented their arguments, and at one point made an angry gesture at the judge to indicate his disapproval, prompting Chesler to tell him again: “Sir, please.” Please, just listen.”
Meanwhile, Laura Roberson-Fisch remained calm throughout the hearing, frowning and folding her hands neatly in her lap.
The couple’s attorneys yelled at each other throughout most of the two-hour skirmish, prompting Chesler at one point to throw up his hands and say, “Everyone, please take a breath!”
“Counselors, one at a time, okay?” added a judicial official in the room during a particularly chaotic moment.
“She is clearly exhibiting obsessive behavior to stalk and harass him.”
Fisch’s lawyer, Marilyn Chinitz
At times, the judge sounded more like a couples therapist, urging both parties to “sit together” and find common ground.
Both sides were apparently in court to argue over what financial records Laura is entitled to as part of the divorce case, although Chesler admitted that while “I would like everyone to focus on these motions… things were a little more beyond that.”
Fisch’s attorneys claimed that Laura’s attorneys have embarked on a “fishing expedition” by citing details of her daily expenses even after the divorce case began.
Laura’s lawyers had sought extensive records of expenses as large as the use of Fisch’s private jet and as small as where he went to dinner, Chinitz said.
“Why would they care if I went out for Chinese food?” Chinitz said, later adding that “they are going down a rabbit hole for no reason other than harassment.”
The judge ultimately ruled from the bench that Fisch must turn over all of his bank and investment accounts, but that Laura does not have the right to know all of his spending habits as the case progresses.
Both sides declined to comment on his departure from the court.
They are due back in court on November 15.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn