OnlyFans star Isabelle Eleanore in legal battle with estranged father
The estranged father of a Gold Coast-based OnlyFans model is going after her earnings as part of a bitter multimillion-dollar battle.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Exclusive: The estranged father of an OnlyFans model is going after her earnings from the adults-only platform as part of a bitter multimillion-dollar legal fight that has been going for more than two years.
Gold Coast-based influencer Isabelle Eleanore, 31, and her Melbourne-based property developer father, Peter Szwarcbord, 67, have made serious allegations against each other in the lawsuit, which centres on the ownership of a luxury apartment in elite suburb Toorak worth at least $3.5m.
In court documents, Peter claimed his daughter and her husband, Jeremy, used family credit cards without permission to spend more than $180,000 on everything from Uber Eats and slimming shakes to a $600 meal at Rockpool in Melbourne and a $2800 shopping spree at lingerie chain Honey Birdette.
He also slammed Jeremy, alleging the fitness instructor led his daughter astray, and claimed that the family laid out more than $230,000 in less than a year to meet the young couple’s rent and pay off their personal American Express and Visa credit card bills.
Isabelle claimed her parents promised to give her the Toorak property at the centre of the dispute and told the court she signed documents making her liable for millions of dollars in loans from the ANZ without reading them because of the influence of her father.
She also accused her father’s property development business of trying to avoid tax by putting the property in her name on official documents.
In November, Victorian County Court judge Paul Cosgrave threw out Isabelle’s allegations, finding in favour of her father and the Szwarcbord family’s trusts.
He ruled that Isabelle always knew the Toorak property “was part of the family business and never belonged to her beneficially whether as a gift or otherwise” and ordered the apartment sold to pay the family’s legal costs and a mortgage from the ANZ.
The judge also found that Isabelle made false statements in statutory declarations where she told the bank she had received independent legal advice before signing financial documents.
In a bid to recover his legal costs, Peter, who was represented in court by top silk and Melbourne Rebels director Tim North, is now seeking to crack open a company controlled by Jeremy that receives earnings from Isabelle’s OnlyFans account and her other business ventures.
However, Isabelle has appealed against the County Court decision, taking the entire stoush to Victoria’s top court, the Court of Appeal. No date has been set for a hearing.
On their social media feeds, Isabelle and Jeremy show off a scantily clad life of luxury replete with designer labels, pricey holidays and high-energy workouts.
Isabelle has a YouTube channel dedicated to her collection of designer handbags, which includes a Hermes Birkin bag priced at more than $10,000.
The clutch of clutches also includes bags from Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton.
Isabelle comes from a wealthy Melbourne family who over three generations have built a fortune from property development.
In court documents, father Peter said Isabelle started working in the family business after leaving school in 2011 and “was on course to one day take over that business”.
However, after she met Jeremy in 2015, “Isabelle changed her behaviour markedly”, including by “mimicking Jeremy’s spending addiction” and “mimicking Jeremy’s history of theft from his employer”, he told the court.
Jeremy was also given a job at the family business but he and Isabelle quit and in June 2020 “Isabelle followed Jeremy to the Gold Coast, Queensland, to make pornographic videos with Jeremy,” Peter told the court.
After marrying Isabelle, Jeremy changed his last name from Meehan to Szwarcbord.
In his November 23 judgment, Judge Cosgrave – who has since been promoted to the Victorian Supreme Court – slammed Isabelle as “someone who will act dishonestly and lie where necessary in order to protect herself or promote her agenda”.
He found that Isabelle effectively stole from her parents by using their credit cards without permission. She also took money from her sister’s account and lied about it “to cover up the theft”, he said.
He found the family had an “unwritten arrangement” where units in properties it developed were sold to a family member to hold on behalf of the property development business.
This juiced up selling the remaining units in the development because it could be marketed as being in demand, and could also wipe out capital gains tax if the family member lived there for long enough, he said.
The family company that developed the Toorak apartment block, Trawalla Development, sold the property at the core of the fight to Isabelle for $3.57m in 2017.
However, the transaction was completely funded by two companies that look after two of the family’s trusts, Charbord Investments and Charbord Investments No. 6.
As part of a complicated series of transactions, in 2018 Isabelle also signed a loan agreement with Charbord for $1.6m.
She also gave a personal guarantee for $5m to the ANZ to backstop a deal where the bank loaned the family business more than $18m.
The Charbord loan was initially interest free but in April 2021 the company jacked the rate up to 10 per cent a year and four months later demanded she pay it back within a month.
Isabelle did not pay and her father launched legal action.
Peter’s solicitor, CIE Legal partner Mark Waters, said his client “will not comment on any aspect of the decision, given that it’s the subject of an appeal by Ms Szwarcbord”.
Isabelle’s solicitor, Atticus Lawyers director Alex Wade, said her client also could not comment because the litigation is continuing “save to say that disputes between family members are always devastating and deeply personal”.
More Coverage
Originally published as OnlyFans star Isabelle Eleanore in legal battle with estranged father