“Indeed, far from a troubled marriage, in 2009 the year Mr. Paulson created the last of the trusts, he made a significant donation to the Southampton Hospital on Long Island, which named its emergency department for Mrs. and Mr. Paulson.” That is “hardly the hallmark of a duplicitous husband planning to divorce his wife twelve years later,” John Paulson claimed.
John Paulson also argued that his wife’s suit was procedurally deficient because it didn’t name as defendants their two teenage daughters, who are beneficiaries to the trusts, and was also filed too late under the state’s statute of limitations.
Along with her husband, Jenica Paulson sued J.P. Morgan Trust Co., which serves as trustee for two of the trusts. The firm is also seeking to dismiss the suit, arguing that it fails to show how the company participated in any plan to hide assets and that it appears to be trying to “circumvent the constraints of the ongoing divorce proceedings.”
John Paulson is perhaps best-known for his successful bet against the US housing market ahead of the 2008 sub-prime crisis, which made $20 billion for him and investors in his hedge fund. He turned the fund into a family office in 2020 and was named chairman of Bausch Health Cos. in June.
He met his wife, a Romanian immigrant who had been granted political asylum, years before he became famous for his subprime trade. She served him and his staff lunch from the Bear Stearns cafeteria, and he later hired her as his assistant.
The case is Paulson v. Paulson, 652358/2022, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan.)
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.