A divorce that scandalized Manhattan society has quietly settled for more than a billion dollars, Page Six has exclusively learned.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Israel Englander — one of the world’s richest men — has agreed to pay former wife Caryl upwards of $1 billion after she left him for a woman following more than 40 years of marriage.
The divorce settlement comes after Caryl, 68, filed an astonishing civil lawsuit alleging the 74-year-old Millennium Management co-founder — who is worth $11.3 billion, according to Forbes — “became enraged” when she “fell in love” with Swiss gallerist Dominique Levy, 55.
She owns the prestigious Dominique Levy Gallery on Madison Avenue, which sells works by artists such as Gerhard Richter, Frank Stella, Cindy Sherman and Jackson Pollock.
In the civil suit, filed on February 9, the two women alleged Israel “terrorized” them both in a supposed effort to bilk Caryl out of billions in the divorce by making her sign a 2020 post-nuptual agreement. The filing was mysteriously withdrawn a week later — and the divorce was just settled privately out of court.
Caryl’s lawyer Peter E Bronstein, from Rottestreich, Lieberman, Farley LLP, exclusively confirmed to us, “Caryl is happy to have settled their issues privately and amicably. The agreement does not allow either party to discuss the terms.” Israel’s attorney John Teitler didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Englanders’ 40-year marriage deteriorated in 2016 following Israel’s “repeated unfaithfulness to Caryl,” she and Levy had claimed in the civil lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court. Plus, “She fell in love with another woman, Dominique,” the suit states.
Israel — named the highest paid hedge funder of 2020 with earnings of $3.8 billion — then “set out to terrorize the two women to force a break in their relationship, believing he could intimidate Caryl into ‘waking up’ and coming back to him,” the filing alleged, adding, “As he openly confessed to numerous people in Dominique’s professional circle, Israel vowed to “destroy” Dominique and her business.”
“He simultaneously intimidated and defrauded Caryl into executing a series of trust agreements and other financial documents— culminating in the November 2020 postnuptial agreement—that stripped her of her equitable share of the billions of dollars of marital assets that the couple had built and accumulated together over four decades of marriage,” the suit continued.
The suit also alleged that that the hedge fund titan also carried out a “years-long campaign of duress” against the two women, having them followed and photographed, hacking their emails and phones.
Plus, it alleged he did “unconscionable things — in his campaign to destroy Dominique,” including allegedly sparking a meritless ACS investigation into her treatment of her children.
Then, “In late September 2017, while Caryl and Israel were celebrating the Jewish High Holidays together with their family, Israel outed Caryl to their children without her consent and disclosed Caryl’s relationship with Dominique, whom he labeled a ‘viper.’
“Israel attacked Caryl in front of their children and blamed Dominique for destroying their family. And he put a price-tag on Caryl’s happiness: He told their children that Caryl’s relationship with Dominique would cost them $450 million in tax liabilities if Caryl and Israel were to separate or divorce,” the suit added.
Because of Israel’s “campaign of terror . . . Caryl was barely eating or sleeping,” and she agreed to a 2020 post-nuptial agreement “under duress, thus forfeiting billions of dollars of joint marital property that she and Israel had built together over more than 40 years of marriage.”
Israel got “more than 95% of the value of their marital assets, and near total control over the few assets and funds available to Caryl,” the filing claimed.
A source said of the battle, “He scared the living hell out of Caryl and he scared the life out of her girlfriend. Dominique’s art business was almost destroyed, he tried to cut out most of her clients, and he threatened he could kill her in business because he’s so powerful.”
