Exclusive | Elderly NYC money bigwig jetted around for botox, dye jobs while wife shopped till she dropped mega-bucks: divorce case

An accused philandering elderly Manhattan private-equity bigwig who once owned a menagerie of exotic animals is telling his soon-to-be ex-wife that he is now totally destitute, according to court hearings.John H.Foster, 82, a longtime health-devices mogul and managing partner of the $800 million private-equity firm HealthPointCapital, claims that during his 15-year marriage to wife Stephanie Foster, 57, his roughly $50 million net worth plummeted “to what is now barely, barely a positive net worth, if at all,” according to his lawyer, Linda Rosenthal, in Manhattan Supreme Court in June, a transcript shows.Stephanie’s out-of-control clothes shopping occurred “at a rate that … none of us can conceive,” his lawyer said.But the high-flying exec’s estranged spouse argues she was “stunned” when her hubby suddenly cried poverty — because he was still constantly flying back and forth from Florida to New York City for botox, hair-dying and nail care appointments.“I mean, if I was $12 million in debt, I would be pretty freaking worried,” she told The Post, referring to John’s alleged in-the-red ledger, during an exclusive interview.

“I wouldn’t be gallivanting around … doing my beauty treatments.”The wife said she saw a damning text from her husband suggesting that his claims of poverty were just part of an elabrate ruse to fool her and the courts.Her camp says that in reality, the business mogul continues to bank millions of dollars in deals — including his days-old sale of an exclusive Fishers Island home — and recently purchased an $800,000 luxury Hinckley yacht just last year.John’s fortunes only supposedly reversed, leaving him the $12 million in the hole, when the divorce began, Stephanie and her lawyer have argued in proceedings they say he’s tried to keep from the public — and his shareholders.The pair is set for another showdown in Manhattan court Monday.“He’s asset-stripping the marital estate,” Stephanie told The P...