A divorce dispute involving a private equity executive New York-based financier, and Epstein's acquintance Jeffrey Leeds and his wife, Elizabeth Leeds, played out in court filings in Florida, Wyoming, and Manhattan, with allegations and counter-allegations that included claims of an affair, harassment, and the misuse of marital funds.
The couple’s legal fight involved real estate valued at $100 million, including a $22 million, 14-room apartment at 740 Park Ave. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a $23.5 million home in Southampton with 11 bedrooms and 12.5 bathrooms, and a $35.6 million property in Palm Beach, New York Post reported citing records.
In Palm Beach County filings, Jeffrey Leeds, 69, accused Elizabeth Leeds, 43, of having a long affair with Miami businessman Alberto Alejandro Tawil, 66, and alleged she was impregnated by him.
“You sneaked out the day I left to f–k that idiot loser,” the husband wrote to Elizabeth in a February 2025 email exchange included in the divorce filings.
He referred to Leeds’ unnamed lover as a “loser grifter real estate mogul” in another message.
He claimed his wife used marital money to invest more than $275,000 in one of Tawil’s businesses in Mozambique, to pay for her beau’s household staff of 21, and to buy “erotic gifts,” court filings showed.
“Just leave us alone and come visit every now and then. You’re a part time-mother anyway,” he once texted her, referencing their two children.
“Stop leaving your ‘watercolors’ of c–ksucking around where the kids can see them and your crotchless underwear on the floor for everyone to see and your anal lubricant around,” he added.
In her Palm Beach County filings, Elizabeth alleged her estranged husband “exerted financial warfare” and harassed her friends, including Tawil and New York jeweller Anne Baker, with unnecessary and intimidating subpoenas.
The husband claimed the jeweller sold Elizabeth a $125,500 diamond and platinum chain, a $98,000 Georgian diamond collet-set necklace, and a $68,000 emerald-cut diamond bracelet, and may have information about the wife’s alleged affair.
Elizabeth alleged Jeffrey “stalked” her and screamed at and followed her during one of their children’s school events.
“Throughout these proceedings the husband has sent text messages . . . of naked photographs he has taken of her to harass and embarrass her,” she claimed in court papers.
He also stole and photographed her journal, she said.
“I had a loving and long-term relationship . . . a loving relationship with someone I have known for a long time and I had a miscarriage,” she said of her relationship with Tawil during a July deposition.
The dispute unfolded alongside references to Leeds in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Leeds’ name appeared dozens of times in the Justice Department’s Epstein document dump and he was quoted in a 2002 New York Magazine profile of Epstein titled “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.”
“You may read about Jeffrey in the social columns, but there is much more to him than that,” Leeds said in the profile. “He’s a talented money manager and an extremely hardworking person with broad interests.”
In one email, publicist Peggy Siegal listed Leeds as a “smart investor and knows politics,” while in another message, Next Model Management founder Faith Kates wrote to Epstein about Leeds.
“Did u know your friend jeffrey leeds got married friday?” she wrote on March 18, 2012, three days after his wedding to Elizabeth. “Finally.”
Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, physician and former model Eva Dubin also wrote to Epstein about Leeds.
“Jeff Leeds says hello,” she emailed in September 2012.
Leeds was not accused of misconduct in connection with Epstein.
“Mr. Leeds had no professional or personal relationship with Epstein,” his lawyer, Peter Trombadore, said in a statement. “No one has suggested otherwise. Any such claims would be utterly false and defamatory.”
The two “may have met in passing, though Mr. Leeds has no recollection of any such meeting,” the attorney added, saying Leeds “never went to Mr. Epstein’s office or any of his homes, was never on his plane or his island.”
The couple married in a March 2012 ceremony in Manhattan presided over by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. At the time, Jeffrey gave Elizabeth $1 million to use as she wished. Leeds Equity Partners had more than $4 billion in assets under management.
The husband’s current net worth was unclear, but a prenuptial agreement indicated he had $90 million in assets before the marriage.
Jeffrey filed for divorce in Palm Beach in January 2025. Days later, Elizabeth, who took their two young children and moved to Wyoming four months earlier, filed her own case there.
The couple bought their five-bedroom apartment in the Park Avenue pre-war building in 2016 for $22.5 million and put it back on the market. The Hamptons home, on 4.6 acres, was once owned by the Carnegie family.
Their Palm Beach property, an 11,567-square-foot house on a 1.3-acre lot a block from the ocean, was rented out, according to court records.
“Elizabeth requests that the press and the public let this matter proceed privately, especially for the sake of the parties’ two young children. Other than that, she will not be making any comments at this time,” said Richard Segal, a lawyer for the wife.
“This is a private matter,” Trombadore said. “Mr. Leeds asks that his privacy and that of his family during this challenging time be respected as he works to resolve issues amicably and focuses on the best interests of the children. We are not going to address specific allegations outside of Court except to state that they are completely without merit and denied.”
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