Possibly he’s more used to a boardroom than a courtroom.
Billionaire investor Michael Fisch struggled to maintain his cool as tensions boiled over at a sensational hearing in his divorce battle this week – earning a scolding from a Manhattan judge, who warned the fuming financier to calm down and let the lawyers talk.
“Sir, please just listen,” Justice Ariel Chesler told Fisch, 60, through the testy showdown in Manhattan Supreme Court, where the finance mogul and his estranged wife are hashing out divide their assets – including three mansions valued at nearly $100 million on the identical ritzy Hamptons street.
The jurist’s rebukes got here as lawyers for Fisch – whose Latest York-based private equity fund American Securities manages $7 billion in assets – and philanthropist and former model Laura Roberson-Fisch, 67, traded barbs and made explosive claims during a heated proceeding last Monday.
His estranged wife’s lawyer claimed Fish has been “looting art” from their home – and that he’d vowed to advance her only a “single dollar” of her inevitably massive divorce payout while the legal saga rages.
Fisch’s attorney, meanwhile, claimed that Laura – also an art patron and the daughter of rich Seattle developer Fred Roberson – recently “stalked” the well-heeled executive while it was his turn to remain on the East Hamptons mansion where the separated couple have been alternating weeks, after she spotted an unknown automotive in the driveway.
“She is clearly exhibiting obsessive behavior to stalk him and harass him,” said Fisch’s lawyer, Marilyn Chinitz of the firm Blank Rome. “It was his time at the house. She saw a automotive on the property, and she or he went on the property to stalk him and see, ‘Who’s there?’”
While the judge tried to make sense of Chinitz’s various allegations, the lawyer reassured him that “I need to remain on focus” – drawing a scathing response from Laura’s attorney Jonathan Wolfe.
“No she doesn’t,” Wolfe shot back. “She desires to make it as salacious as possible!”
But Wolfe lobbed several scandalous claims himself through the acrimonious proceeding – including that his client got a restraining order against Fisch “because he was looting art from the martial home.”
Insiders told Page Six in February that the couple – who were married for 33 years, share 4 children and didn’t sign a prenup – own a blue-chip art collection that may very well be value greater than $500 million.
While Fisch’s exact net value is unclear, a source told Page Six the finance mogul was value “a minimum of $10 billion.”
Yet Fisch has also “only agreed to at least one dollar of an advance of equitable distribution” in the case, Wolfe claimed through the Sept. 18 hearing – before hurling a more personal charge about Fisch’s sex life.
“He won’t even agree to not bring women into the bed where she sleeps on alternating weeks!” Wolfe exclaimed.
Shortly after the arguments began in the relatively drab lower Manhattan courtroom, a clearly frustrated Fisch, wearing a blue raincoat on top of a pinstriped black suit, leaned back in his chair, his left hand pressed firmly to his temple.
But by the top of the afternoon, he’d moved to the front of his chair, leaning forward along with his arms pressing into the desk in front of him.
He repeatedly signaled his disgust by either waving his hands wildly or sharply exhaling while putting his face in his hands.
Fisch first spoke up in court using a comparatively measured tone to accuse Laura’s lawyers of spinning a “web of lies” while insisting that he had turned over sufficient records of the couple’s joint financial assets.
However the investment magnate soon struggled to maintain it together while describing Laura’s lawyers’ requests for documents, which he called “pure harassment.”
“They’ll inform you that we didn’t produce it, however it’s not true!” Fisch fumed, raising his voice. “I produced every thing that’s reasonable, and I keep producing it!”
He then tried to chop Wolfe off because the attorney argued that Laura was entitled to receive all of Fisch’s bank and investment records – not only the accounts that Fisch’s camp deems marital.
But Fisch’s outburst drew a swift reproach from the judge.
“Sir, sir, please listen, please,” Chesler told Fisch.
Fisch also exaggeratedly mouthed “that’s not true” at times while his ex’s lawyers made their arguments, and at one point gestured furiously on the judge to signal his disapproval, causing Chesler to again tell him, “Sir, please, just listen.”
Laura Roberson-Fisch, meanwhile, kept calm throughout the hearing, frowning and folding her hands neatly on her lap.
The pair’s attorneys shouted over one another for many of the two-hour skirmish, causing Chesler to at one point put his hands up and say, “Everybody, please take a breath!”
“Counselors, one after the other, alright?” a court officer in the room added during one particularly chaotic moment.
The judge at times appeared more like a pair’s therapist, urging each side to “sit together” and find common ground.
Each side were ostensibly in court to argue about what financial records Laura is entitled to as a part of the divorce case – though Chesler admitted that though “I would love everyone to deal with these motions… things did go a bit past that.”
Fisch’s lawyers claimed that Laura’s attorneys have launched into a “fishing expedition” by subpoenaing details of his day-to-day spending even after the divorce case began.
Laura’s attorneys had sought vast records of expenses as large as Fisch’s private jet usage and as small as where he went to dinner, Chinitz said.
“Why would they care if he went out for dinner for Chinese food?” Chinitz said, adding later that, “They’re chasing down a rabbit hole for no reason aside from harassment.”
The judge eventually ruled from the bench that Fisch must turn over all of his bank and investment accounts, but that Laura shouldn’t be entitled to learn about all of his spending habits while the case rolls on.
Each side declined to comment on their way out of court.
They’re due back in court on November 15.