BILLIONAIRE’S WIFE BARRED FROM TESTIFYING IN $6.2B DIVORCE
Laura Overdeck went to court demanding a $6.2 billion share of her husband John Overdeck’s stake in the hedge fund Two Sigma, then a judge barred her from testifying after finding she had committed multiple discovery abuses in the Overdeck divorce. The judge, Bruce Buechler, pointed to her photographing her husband’s emails with his lawyers, among other things, and dismissed her divorce complaint as a sanction.
The trial opened Wednesday, August 12, 2026, in a Newark, New Jersey, courtroom, the New York Post reported. Laura wanted 35% of John’s piece of the $80 billion firm, which her lawyer valued at $6.2 billion. The request also covered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds and equal control of the family foundation.
The couple married in 2002 without a prenup, and the divorce proceedings began in 2022. Her lawyer, Theresa Lyons, called it the biggest contested divorce in New Jersey history.
Two Sigma was either a company or a concept
The fight came down to one question: is John’s Two Sigma stake a marital asset? His lawyer, Jonathan Wolfe, said no. The firm was founded two years before the wedding, and in his opening statement he said it “had done substantial work and managed hundreds of millions of dollars before the parties’ marriage.”
Lyons said Two Sigma was a “concept of a notion of a company” when the couple wed. She also argued that John spent 20 years conspiring with their lawyers to hide assets as he plotted a divorce. “John Overdeck is not a man who woke up one morning and decided to divorce his wife,” she said. “John Overdeck is trying to put the genie back in the bottle.”
The money was disputed too. Laura’s camp said John offered $633 million, which it called “as little as possible.” Wolfe said the actual offer was a $723 million tax-free equitable distribution, “more than enough to meet the needs of the parties’ marital lifestyle.” He also said 35% of John’s shares was worth $4.9 billion, not $6.2 billion.
Forbes put John’s net worth at $8 billion, which made him the 478th richest person in the world. Laura, who also has hedge fund experience, founded the nonprofit Bedtime Math in 2012.
The judge shuts the door
On August 18, 2026, Buechler found that Laura had “engaged in multiple discovery abuses,” the Post reported. Besides photographing the emails on his private computer, she entered his post-office box and deleted evidence from her phone, according to the judge.
He barred her from testifying and from calling her own expert witnesses. The ruling did not settle the money, though. “The assets need to be equitably distributed,” Buechler said.
Bloomberg reported that police were also called multiple times to the Short Hills home the couple had shared, citing police reports and body-camera footage.
On August 26, 2026, John took the stand and testified that his $723 million proposal was “fair,” based on his Two Sigma compensation and his stake in the firm. He also said Laura deserved some of the appreciation in that stake, just less than she wanted.
With her own testimony off the table, cross-examining John became Laura’s main route to making her case, and Yahoo Finance reported that her legal team is appealing the restrictions.
The divorce also hangs over Two Sigma itself. John and co-founder David Siegel each own roughly half the firm, and their falling out burst into view in 2023. They quit as co-CEOs the following year, and Bloomberg reported the outcome of the divorce could tip the balance of power toward Siegel. Laura is also suing Seward & Kissel, John’s estate law firm, saying it helped him shield assets.
The case moved on to expert testimony in October. On October 6, 2026, Yahoo News reported that Buechler rejected a request to seal all of financial expert Todd Povlich’s testimony. He did allow the portions that could reveal Two Sigma’s confidential information to be heard privately.
