Linda Simon used private investigator in divorce battle
He’s lucky the only thing she hacked was his computer.
Linda Simon, the estranged wife of hedge-fund manager and CNBC commentator David Simon, admitted she broke into her husband’s work computer — but says she did it only to prove he squandered “hundreds of thousands of marital assets” on his extramarital affairs, including $250,000 in “hush money” to a woman with whom he fathered a child last year.
In August, David Simon’s $100 million hedge fund, Twin Capital Management, sued Linda and her divorce attorney, Jason Advocate, for $25 million in Manhattan Civil Court for hacking his work computer and accessing the hedge fund’s “trade secrets,” “highly confidential financial records” and its clients’ personal financial information.
Twin Capital later moved to dismiss Advocate as Linda’s attorney in the civil action, citing his conflict as a co-defendant in the hacking case.
In responding to the allegations for the first time last week, Linda admitted she hacked David’s computer and copied loads of files, using the help of T&M Protection Resources, a security and surveillance company.
But she said she did it to obtain proof of David’s “infidelities and marital waste” — not for information about Twin Capital’s trading or clientele, she said in her filings.
The data collected by T&M show that “Simon was a ‘sugar daddy’ to several young women through a Web site called sugardaddy.com and was spending thousands of dollars per week paying these women ‘allowances’ to be at his beck and call,” Linda said in the filing.
The domain name Sugardaddy.com is owned by Sugardaddyforme.com, a Web site that promises “millions of sugar daddies,” including “Christian sugar daddies, Jewish sugar daddies, Muslim sugar daddies . . . all looking for love.”
Linda’s hacking also produced documents showing that David agreed to pay $275,000 in “hush money” to a woman with whom he had a child last year, the court filings said.
“This is a desperate act by an attorney who has been under criminal investigation and faces a substantial civil liability in this case,” said a spokesman for David Simon, who founded Twin Capital in 1988.
Linda could not be immediately reached for comment. Advocate declined to comment except to say David’s efforts to get him disqualified as Linda’s attorney were denied yesterday by Manhattan Civil Judge Jeffrey Oing.
David was kicked out of the family’s suburban Purchase home after Linda filed a temporary order of protection against him in Westchester Family Court, where the couple’s divorce proceedings are under way.
It is a shame Linda didn't feel safe enough to leave years ago. It is well documented that leaving a controlling, abusive husband, can push him to the point of murder, ie, OJ Simpson, a fact that often delays the abused spouse from escaping the volatile marriage. The safety of their children is of course number one priority, and the possibility of being left without a mother is another factor to consider. David Simon is a dangerous man. Instead of coming clean with his subversive behavior, he directed his lawyers to file civil and criminal charges against the mother of their children on the pretense that she was looking for "financial records." He was hoping to get all the information from the hacked computer thrown out. Mr. Simon, thinking he could out manipulate anyone, could not manipulate the judges in this case. He only filed the charges against his wife to keep the information of his egregious sex life private. Well, I hope Mr.David Simon finally realizes that the law doesn't allow anyone, even him, to possess another human being, even a child.
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