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Billionaire Michael Fisch battling estranged wife over three Hamptons mansions


Hedge fund billionaire Michael Fisch is divorcing his wife Laura — and the couple is fighting over three homes on the same ritzy street in the Hamptons totaling nearly $100 million.

Fisch, the founder of New York-based American Securities which boasts revenue of $45 billion, and former model Laura Roberson-Fisch were married for 33 years with no prenup, according to sources.

At stake are an astonishing three homes on Further Lane in East Hampton, known as “billionaire’s row,” plus a blue-chip art collection thought to be worth more than $500 million.

The first Hamptons home was bought for $25.7 million in 2007. They purchased the house next door for $28 million in 2012 and the third home in 2013 for $32.5 million.

They also have a sprawling Fifth Avenue apartment bought in 2019 for $21 million, and an Upper East Side townhouse they bought in 1994 next door to Woody Allen, with whom Fisch famously feuded.

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An aerial shot of one of their estates in Southampton.
The biggest battle for the couple, we’re told, will be over their three Hamptons mansions.Google Maps
A shot of the front gates of one of their homes.
The pair bought multiple homes on the same street dubbed “billionaire’s row” in Southampton. Google Maps
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A covered shot of another one of their homes from the street.
The homes were purchased between the early aughts and late-2010s.Google Maps
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Michael, 60, and Laura, 67, have four grown children, but astonishingly, no prenup.

A source said, “He is worth at least $10 billion, he made all the money during their marriage, and there is no prenup. This could easily end in a multi-billion dollar settlement.

“This is a huge divorce with a lot at stake — three houses in the Hamptons ‘billionaire’s row’, a huge Manhattan townhouse, and an incredible art collection. They are particularly battling over the Hamptons properties.”

Fisch is represented in the divorce by Marilyn B. Chinitz at Blank Rome. She declined to comment.

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The front of one of their Manhattan townhouses.
The couple also own two NYC apartments.
The front of one of their Manhattan townhouses.
One of which they famously feuded with Woody Allen over renovations.
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His wife, an art patron, philanthropist and the daughter of wealthy Seattle developer Fred Roberson, is represented by Jonathan W. Wolfe and Michael A. Mosberg.

Power attorney William D. Zabel joined her team in January, according to a notice of appearance filed with New York Supreme Court. All three attorneys didn’t return requests for comment.

in 2000, Fisch and his wife got into trouble with his famous neighbors Allen and gourmet food store guru Eli Zabar on 92nd Street over plans to enlarge their townhouse.

It was reported that they joined other homeowners on the south side of the block to hire a lawyer and fight the Fisches’ proposal before the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Fisch is the president and chief executive officer of American Securities LLC. Bloomberg via Getty Images

The couple was seeking to extend their four-story townhouse, built in 1888, up by one story, out by 10 feet in the rear and below ground by 17.5 feet.

The opponents contended that such an enlargement would block light and breezes, destroy backyard vistas, and harm trees and plants.

They also claimed that the construction, which requires burrowing seventeen feet underground, would destroy the peace, tranquility, and natural beauty of the interconnected gardens that the Allens, Zabars, Fisches and several other families share.

“We all got together and offered to buy the house at fair market value,” said Allen at the time. “We felt perhaps they just picked the wrong house for what they want.”

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Laura Fisch, wearing a white and black patterned dress, poses with two female friends at the 2016 High Line Spring Benefit on May 23, 2016 in New York City.
Laura, pictured here with two friends at a benefit in 2016, is a familiar figure on the New York City social and arts circuit.Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
Laura Fisch wears a white floral hat and white outfit while seated with two friends at the Central Park Conservancy 'Hat Luncheon'.
She’s the daughter of wealthy Seattle developer Fred Roberson.Laura Roberson Fisch/Facebook
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But, “He was insulted,” Ross Moskowitz, Michael Fisch’s lawyer responded to Allen, “He has lived in Carnegie Hill for twenty-some-odd years. He and his family have been stellar members of the community. They were outraged by the arrogance to assume they would leave the neighborhood.”

The Fisches didn’t leave, and the landmarks commission awarded them a partial victory, granting them a two-story-high rear-yard extension rather than the five-story addition they wanted.

Before establishing American Securities, avid Ironman competitor Fisch was a consultant in the Paris office of Bain & Company and worked in the mergers and acquisitions division of Goldman Sachs.

The pair have both lawyered up for their blockbuster divorce. Laura Roberson Fisch/Facebook

He is a Trustee of Princeton Theological Seminary and Chairman of their Investment Committee. He is also Vice Chairman on the Board and Treasurer of Human Rights Watch and a guest lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

His company was hit by controversy in 2020 when American Securities GTL “faced scrutiny for exorbitant prison phone and video-calling rates, flaunting legal protections, allegedly bribing government officials and growing regulatory risk,” according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.

It added GTL, owned by American Securities since 2011, is the country’s largest provider of correctional telephone systems, video-calling systems, and financial and electronic equipment to incarcerated individuals, servicing around 1.8 million people — nearly 80 percent of the US correctional population.

The allegations included increasing the costs for prisoners to stay in touch with their families, and allegedly improperly recording thousands of attorney-client privileged phone calls in Orange County, Calif., between 2015 and 2018.

We’re told their blue-chip art collection thought to be worth more than $500 million is also up for grabs in the divorce. Laura Roberson Fisch/Facebook

In January 2019 GTL was fined after Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood announced that he had recovered over $2.5 million from the company, which was accused
of channeling bribes and kickbacks to a Mississippi Department of Corrections commissioner.

In January 2022, GTL rebranded itself as ViaPath Technologies, claiming it has worked to lower calling rates and provide free communication options for those incarcerated. Then late last year the government passed a bill that would allow the FCC to go after predatory prison phone call companies.

Reps for American Securities and ViaPath Technologies declined to comment.