TYCOON ‘PRISONER’
Bill Gross’ lament as neighbor feud amps up
Billionaire investor Bill Gross says the monthslong legal saga with his oceanfront neighbor in California has him feeling like he is “in a prison” — to the point that his wife now fears even venturing into her own backyard.
Gross — the billionaire PIMCO founder and bondindustry legend — and his wife, Amy Schwartz, landed back in court this week after their neighbor Mark Towfiq asked a judge to find the couple in contempt for violating a court order that sought to stop them from blasting loud music outside their Laguna Beach home.
If found guilty, Gross could be sent to jail.
“I fear going into my backyard,” Schwartz, a former professional tennis player who tied the knot with Gross in April, testified this week. “I couldn’t have my wedding reception there. I couldn’t have my birthday there.”
She added that she has to announce each time she goes outside so the Towfiqs won’t call the police.
“I’m being monitored 24/7 inside my home,” Schwartz said in Santa Ana Superior Court. “I’m very frustrated.”
Gross, 77, also lamented that the much-litigated squabble has him back in a spotlight that glared during a previous round of court hearings that included a video of him crouching down and appearing to dance to “In Da Club” by rapper 50 Cent.
“I’ve been trying to have a reputation to die with, and this is not constructive,” Gross said Tuesday in court.
The bitter feud between the neighbors began last year after Towfiq groused about a protective net Gross had installed above a glass backyard sculpture that allegedly blocked Towfiq’s view from his own house.
He lodged a complaint about the net with local officials — and the retired PIMCO founder fired back by blaring music at earsplitting volumes, including heavy rockk by Led Zeppelin and the cloying themes of “Gilligan’s Island” and “Green Acres.”
Gross also countered in court that Towfiq was an obsessed “Peeping Tom” who “watched, leered at, photographed and videotaped” the couple in their home for more than a year.
They sued Towfiq for invasion of privacy and other violations in October, and he filed his own harassment complaint a day later.
Gross — worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to Forbes — is famous for his colorful clashes. He sued PIMCO, the investment behemoth he created in 1971, for his 2014 ouster, claiming a “cabal” of junior managers plotted against him to increase their share of the bonus pool.
After his divorce was finalized in 2017, his ex-wife accused him of leaving their 13,819-square-foot Laguna Beach home, which she won in the divorce. She said it was a smelly mess, with dead fish in the vents. Gross denied the allegations.
And last year, as The Post exclusively reported at the time, Gross attempted to thwart his estranged son’s efforts to sell rare “Inverted Jenny’’ postage stamps he had inherited. The stamps ended up going to auction after the story ran and selling for $1.9 million.