Billionaire Millennium Management Chairman Israel “Izzy” Englander was sued by his wife Caryl for allegedly conducting a “yearslong campaign of pressure and coercion” that led her to sign a post-nuptial agreement under duress.
(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Millennium Management Chairman Israel “Izzy” Englander was sued by his wife Caryl for allegedly conducting a “yearslong campaign of pressure and coercion” that led her to sign a post-nuptial agreement under duress.
The suit, filed Thursday in New York state court, seeks to overturn the agreement Caryl Englander signed in November 2020. According to the suit, it strips her of billions of dollars in joint marital property that they accumulated over 40 years.
Izzy Englander, 74, has a net worth of $11.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Caryl Englander says she and her husband grew apart by 2016, and she fell in love with another woman, Swiss art dealer Dominique Levy.
Izzy Englander responded by outing his wife’s relationship with Levy to their three children, hiring private investigators to surveil the couple and deploying “his near-limitless wealth to launch an all-out campaign of duress,” according to the suit.
Guy Potvin, a spokesman for Izzy Englander, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment via email and voicemail.
Caryl Englander alleges the “campaign was designed to ‘destroy’ Dominique and her business, and to punish Caryl and deprive her of her rightful, equitable share of the billions of dollars in marital assets — including, among other things, a valuable art collection — that the two of them had built together over the course of their marriage.”
She was “so traumatized and so desperate for Israel’s intimidation of her and Dominique to stop” that she acquiesced to the post-nuptial agreement, Caryl Englander claims.
“Israel accomplished what he had set out to achieve: he secured for himself nearly all of the couple’s wealth — more than 95% of the value of their marital assets, and near total control over the few assets and funds available to Caryl — all while punishing Caryl for her relationship with Dominique, terrorizing Dominique and her family, and harming Dominique’s business and livelihood in the process,” Caryl Englander said in her suit.
The case is Englander v. Englander, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.