Private equity bigwig John Foster claims he is “penniless” amid divorce proceedings

An accused Manhattan man who once owned a menagerie of exotic animals tells his soon-to-be ex-wife that he is completely penniless, according to court hearings.

John H. Foster, 82, a longtime health device mogul and managing partner of the $800 million private equity firm HealthPointCapital, claims that during his 15-year marriage to his wife Stephanie Foster, 57, his net worth increased by around “This is now hardly, if at all, a positive net worth,” his lawyer Linda Rosenthal said in a transcript in Manhattan Supreme Court in June.

Stephanie’s out-of-control dress shopping proceeded “at a pace that … none of us can imagine,” his lawyer said.

But the high-flying executive’s estranged wife argues she was “stunned” when her husband suddenly screamed poverty – because he was still constantly flying back and forth from Florida to New York City for Botox, hair coloring and nail care appointments.

“I mean, if I was $12 million in debt, I would be pretty worried,” she told The Post during an exclusive interview, referring to John’s alleged red numbers. “I wouldn’t be fooling around…doing my beauty treatments.”

The woman said she saw a damning text message from her husband suggesting his claims of poverty were just part of an elaborate ruse to deceive her and the courts.

Their camp says that in reality, the business mogul continues to make deals worth millions of dollars – including the sale of an exclusive home on Fishers Island – and just last year bought an $800,000 luxury yacht in Hinckley.

When the divorce began, John’s fortunes only reversed, leaving him $12 million in the hole, Stephanie and her lawyer argued in proceedings he allegedly kept secret from the public – and his shareholders.

The couple faces another showdown in Manhattan court on Monday.

“He’s robbing the marital estate,” Stephanie told the Post.

Stephanie said her court battle was just another corporate game for her husband – and claimed she even found a text message on his phone thanking a family lawyer for helping him hide money from her.

Rosenthal responded to the Post in a statement: “John Foster has been completely transparent and honest with the divorce court and his wife.

“Any claim to the contrary is false,” his lawyer said.

But Stephanie said she saw her husband’s scathing text message during an attempted reconciliation over Christmas dinner at posh French restaurant La Goulue in 2021.

John briefly went out to walk their dog and left his phone behind, she said. Stephanie said she had long had her husband’s phone password to order food and help him download apps, so she logged in – to check if he was still texting the women he was dating in her opinion, cheating.

Instead, she said, she discovered her husband’s “shocking” text message to a family lawyer who she said had represented them both in the past.

“Your wealth strategy worked. “Steph is stunned,” the text message shared with The Post reads.

“Told me I was bankrupt!” John’s alleged text continued. “She’s very upset!”

Stephanie says her “hands were shaking” as she read the text and quickly took a photo before handing the phone back before her husband returned.

Despite living a lavish lifestyle for decades, John declared himself “suddenly destitute” after the divorce began, Stephanie’s attorney, BriAnne Copp, said during opening arguments in court in June, according to a transcript.

“This case is about more than a simple divorce,” Copp said at the hearing. “At its core, it’s about manipulation and control – over my client, over the finances and even over the information available in this process.”

Lanny Davis, who was recently hired by Stephanie as legal counsel — and previously served as special counsel to former President Bill Clinton and as counsel to former President George W. Bush’s civil liberties panel — told The Post: “That’s what we hope from her “With her testimony on Monday, Ms. Foster can set the record straight and help achieve a fair outcome of equitable distribution of ‘marital assets’ within the meaning of New York law.”

Copp, who declined to comment citing a confidentiality obligation, argued in June that John had been manipulating his finances since his divorce proceedings began, moving millions of dollars to avoid paying out his wife.

Copp told the court that her client gave up her career as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank when the couple married in 2009 and that she now has no significant assets.

“While he has lived a fabulous lifestyle for the last 60 years, now that he is involved in a divorce he is suddenly $12 million in debt,” Copp said at the hearing.

This “fabulous” lifestyle included a $10 million home on exclusive Fisher Island that sold just days ago, a 5,000-acre Texas ranch full of exotic African animals – including oryxes, sables and zebras – and a Gulfstream IV SP jet, which the former couple used for weekend trips to the Texas Ranch, Fisher’s Island and John’s apartment at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, claims their camp.

Copp said in her court statement that John also purchased an $800,000 Hinckley yacht and deposited over $3 million into his account last year alone.

But his lawyer blamed Stephanie’s clothing-buying habits for partially depleting more than $45 million from her husband’s net worth and said she was beating up a poor old man, according to recent court hearings.

Stephanie claims she asked her husband – just days after he found the seemingly damning text message – why he was still spending a lot of money on his self-care hairstyle instead of working with a bankruptcy lawyer.

“I said, ‘I think your limited partners would be very interested to know [general partner] is $12 million in the red,” she recalls.

“He looks at me and says, ‘Well, that would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn’t it?’ “, she claimed.

According to Stephanie, their marriage ended not because of a long series of alleged affairs by her husband, but because of a comment he made during her efforts to review her older husband’s estate planning.

“I don’t care what happens to you when I die,” Stephanie allegedly told her, Stephanie told The Post.

“I filed for divorce pretty quickly after that,” she said.

The corrosive process was marked by what Stephanie calls “corporate chess.”

It’s also not the first time John has been accused of trying to hide assets.

According to BioSpace.com, John and one of HealthPointCapital’s portfolio companies, Alphatec, lost a major lawsuit in 2014 when they were accused of orchestrating “a fraudulent transfer of assets” to avoid paying a debt.

A jury ultimately awarded plaintiff OrthoTec a $73 million verdict.