Kimora Lee Simmons Refuses To Leave $25M Mansion

Kimora Lee Simmons is being put on the radar over a lavish $25 million Beverly Hills mansion she’s reportedly refusing to leave, despite her ex-husband’s admission to buying the property with funds stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The former runway model, turned Baby Phat founder and reality TV star, has reportedly lived rent-free in the luxury property for the past five years, according to the celebrity.land. The Beverly Hills mansion was purchased in 2017 by her estranged husband, disgraced banker Tim Leissner, with funds tied to the $1MDB embezzlement scandal, and court documents allege Simmons has neither paid rent nor made mortgage payments and is refusing to leave the home.

According to Simmons, her estranged husband sold the seven-bedroom estate to real estate brothers David and Simon Reuben through a deal she claims was fraudulent, requiring $67,000 in monthly payments.

The ongoing civil dispute over ownership and liability stems from a distressed refinancing and sale-leaseback arrangement involving the luxury home, which has also appeared on her current reality series, “Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane.”

The mother of five, including son Wolf Lee Leissner, whom she shares with her estranged ex, separated from him in 2022 and remains entangled in an ongoing legal and financial battle. Their split followed revelations that he had falsified a prior divorce before marrying her, and the two are now locked in a dispute over multimillion-dollar shares tied to the 1MDB scandal.

Simmons’ ongoing legal fight over the Beverly Hills mansion is set to reach a key moment at a Feb. 25 trial-setting conference. Meanwhile, her estranged husband reported to a federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 6 — eight years after pleading guilty in his role in the $4.5 billion 1MDB fraud.

Leissner admitted under oath that he purchased the $25 million home using stolen funds while testifying as a government witness in the Brooklyn trial of his former Goldman Sachs colleague, Roger Ng, who is now serving a 10-year sentence.

Authorities have not accused Simmons of involvement in the scheme, though the property has become a focal point in ongoing civil litigation. The broader 1MDB scandal led several celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, to return luxury gifts tied to the fraud, but Simmons’ residence remains an unresolved outlier at the center of the dispute.

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