Hedge fund billionaire accused of hiding assets during divorce
Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson used a sham purchase of a luxury penthouse apartment in Puerto Rico to improperly enrich himself by $10 million at the expense of his family trust, his wife claims in a suit accusing him of hiding billions of dollars in assets during their divorce.
Jenica Paulson claimed her husband agreed in 2020 to buy the apartment at the St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort for an artificially low price of $5.6 million from a 2009 family trust, which owned the property. The penthouse is currently worth $15 million, she said in an updated complaint, filed in state court in Manhattan Wednesday. The transaction effectively allowed him to remove $10 million from the trust that he wasn’t entitled to, she said.
John Paulson, 67, has a net worth of $5.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In her July 2022 lawsuit, Jenica Paulson accused him of secretly setting up a trio of irrevocable trusts, ostensibly to benefit their two children but actually to shield assets for himself. She’s asking for at least $1 billion in damages.
The acrimonious split offers a rare glimpse into a high-profile divorce in New York, where matrimonial proceedings are generally confidential. John Paulson filed for divorce in September 2021. The couple doesn’t have a prenup. Days later, the New York Post reported that he was dating 35-year-old dietitian and Instagram influencer Alina De Almeida.
The parties in the case had been scheduled Thursday to argue on John Paulson’s request to throw out the suit before a state court but agreed to postpone the hearing in order to address the allegations in the amended complaint.
James T. Smith, a lawyer for John Paulson, told the judge that the new complaint is “doubling down” on
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