A Wall Street bigwig is being forced to pay his soon-to-be-ex-wife a whopping $4.1 million in advance legal fees in their epic $200 million divorce battle.
A New York appellate court recently ordered hedge fund manager Remy Trafalet, 48, to cough up $3.5 million “for interim counsel and expert fees” to his socialite spouse Lara, according to court papers — on top of another $600,000 her lawyers say she was awarded last year.
A judge determined Lara, 49, needs the huge cash infusion due to “the scope and size of the assets in the marital estate,” which involves untangling each spouse’s assets from a $150 million trust and will require “legal, accounting, and property valuation” expertise, according to court documents.
“This is an extraordinary fee award, but absolutely appropriate and critical to the non-moneyed spouse in this case to protect their rights,” Lara’s attorney Laurie McPherson told The Post.
McPherson said the “extremely angry and litigious” Trafalet is putting his wife “through a tremendous amount of litigation here, and really looking to fight her on every front.”
A source with knowledge of the case agreed the dollar figure is typically unheard of in New York, but said it was warranted because this is “major scorched earth litigation.”
“This kind of award is really unprecedented. When they award these interim fees it’s typically under a million dollars,” said the source.
The couple, who have three kids together, first filed for divorce in 2015. Lara has been living in the family’s ritzy Park Avenue apartment, while her estranged husband has been residing in one of their other properties, according to McPherson.
Trafalet, the son of Chicago lawyers, began picking stocks as a teen at New Hampshire’s elite Phillips Exeter Academy, opened his fund at the age of 25 and was managing $6 billion before the financial crisis — enough to pay for his 100 employees to spend a weekend at a five-star hotel in Venice, according to a New York Times report.
His wife, the daughter of an Ohio real estate investor and an art expert, worked for an online art and antiques dealer before they got married, and now cares for their kids.
Trafalet’s attorney didn’t return a request for comment.