Wife of hedge fund mogul barred from testifying in record-breaking NJ divorce case after hacking his email, stealing his mail: judge

Billionaire John Overdeck is set to testify in his record-breaking divorce case Tuesday — but his estranged wife was barred from taking the stand after a judge ruled she resorted to dirty tactics, like hacking his computer and deleting evidence.New Jersey Family Court Judge Bruce Buechler determined that Laura Overdeck “engaged in multiple discovery abuses,” according to a transcript of a prior hearing, citing several examples of domestic espionage and evidence destruction.Those included illicitly accessing her husband’s private computer to take photos of emails he exchanged with his lawyers, breaking into his post office box and deleting evidence from her phone, the judge said.It means Overdeck will be unable to testify or call expert witnesses in what her attorney has dubbed the Garden State’s most expensive contested divorce.That could throw a wrench in her attempt to claim a 35% stake in hubby John Overdeck’s $80 billion hedge fund Two Sigma, which her attorneys estimate amounts to a whopping $6.2 billion.The judge found in April that Laura Overdeck had snapped pics on her cell of her spouse’s emails discussing legal strategy — and then failed to produce the phone, according to the transcript.Despite court orders, she didn’t turn over the phone “until at least 13 months later” — and the images had been deleted, with Overdeck claiming the device was running out of memory, according to Buechler.“Whether Ms.

Overdeck did it maliciously or accidentally is not relevant,” Buechler said.”There’s a cumulative effect here.”The ruling also found that Overdeck had convinced the post office to provide her with an extra key to her estranged husband’s private P.O.

box “so she could access the mail in that box” — but she refused to say what she took or to return it.Buechler opted to dismiss Overdeck’s divorce complaint — calling it the “ultimate sanction” — severely limiting her options in the Newark courtroom, where the he...