Legendary bond investor Bill Gross and his wife Amy have been spotted beaming after completing their mandatory community service in a photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
The billionaire founder of investment management company PIMCO and his wife completed the two days of community service at a Santa Ana, California soup kitchen last week, Gross revealed in an investment note on Wednesday.
The community service was handed down as punishment after a judge found the couple guilty of flouting a court order not to annoy their neighbor by playing the theme song from Gilligan's Island.
The bitter and convoluted dispute between wealthy neighbors stems from a $1 million glass sculpture that Gross installed in the back yard of his Laguna Beach mansion.
'They’re happy to have completed their community service, paid their fines, and intend to abide by the court order without incident going forward,' a source close to the couple told DailyMail.com.
At the soup kitchen, the couple served up a 'gorgeous enchilada lunch replete with cheesecake and chips,' Gross recounted in his investment note.
Writing in his typical tongue-in-cheek style, Gross marveled at the high-class menu options served up by the soup kitchen, and wryly noted that many of the 'customers' appeared more well-to-do than the bedraggled staff.
'No downtrodden homeless people at this soup kitchen!' wrote Gross, adding that vehicles lined up for the drive-thru meal pickup included many 'nice SUVs and pickup trucks'.
Legendary bond investor Bill Gross and his wife Amy have been spotted beaming after completing their mandatory community service at a California soup kitchen in this photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com
Bill and Amy Gross are seen in court on October 1. A judge found the couple guilty of flouting a court order not to annoy their neighbor by playing the theme song from Gilligan's Island
Neighbor Mark Towfiq has pursued a long-running legal battle with Gross
'Indeed, as Amy and I cut chicken for the soup and fruit for the fruit cups, we were then assigned to pass out what was actually a gorgeous enchilada lunch replete with cheesecake and chips,' recalled Gross.
'There were vegan meals, gluten-free meals, five kinds of bread, and orders from the cars to skip the meal but to give them mini-sacks of avocados and artichokes for special diets later in the day,' the billionaire observed.
'Many of those requesting vegan were well dressed and apparently not lacking in the finer accoutrements of daily life,' he added.
Earlier this month, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Knill found Gross and Amy guilty of violating a restraining order issued in his bitter, long-running feud with tech entrepreneur Mark Towfiq.
The two Laguna Beach neighbors have slung various accusations at each other, with Towfiq accusing Gross of sonic warfare for blaring the Gilligan's Island tune on outdoor speakers, and Gross alleging that Towfiq is a 'creepy' Peeping Tom who films Amy on their property at all hours.
The legal battle has also included allegations that 'star-struck' Towfiq inconvenienced the neighborhood by renting his house out to film an episode of Ballers, and claims that Gross installed an 'unsightly' netting around a $1 million lawn sculpture created by renowned blown-glass artist Dale Chihuly.
The bitter and convoluted dispute between wealthy neighbors stems from a $1 million glass sculpture that Gross (above) installed in the back yard of his Laguna Beach mansion
The homes of Mark Towfiq and Bill Gross are seen above in this aerial image
In 2018 Gross and his then-girlfriend Amy Schwartz purchased the $38M property (pictured) and moved in next to Towfiq
The neighbors have been involved in a bitter dispute since last year, stemming from a $1 million lawn sculpture in Gross' yard created by renowned blown-glass artist Dale Chihuly
Towfiq complained that the netting around the statue created unsightly views from his veranda (left) but Gross says that the net was vital to protect the sculpture from hazards such as falling palm fronds (right)
Judge Knill sentenced Gross and Amy to community service and five days in jail for continuing to play the television jingle, but the jail sentence was suspended due to COVID-19.
In his note on Wednesday, Gross slammed the judge as 'a 57-year-old lady with pierced nose stud and visible tattoos' who 'only does "restraining order" cases in Orange County.'
He said that the sentence had been handed down 'for playing 15 minutes of music at 9 pm in our backyard pool.'
'The music was below city decibel limits but was somehow disturbing the peace of our noise-sensitive neighbor,' wrote Gross.
'NO police citation was issued but what the heck, a crime must have been committed if the neighbor simply called police and complained he couldn't sleep at such a late hour,' he added.
A Gross confidante previously explained to DailyMail.com that the Gilligan's theme song has special meaning for the couple, because the opening credits of the 1960s show were filmed near their other home in Newport Beach.
Laguna Beach police officers are seen posing with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson outside of Towfiq's home in May 2019, during a shoot for the HBO series Ballers that Gross says caused chaos on the street and blocked their driveway
Thanks to the court dispute, when the couple got married in April 2020 (pictured) they had to do it at their other property in Indian Wells
In his latest investment outlook note, Gross also shared his market observations, opining that the bond market's 'finest hour' is behind it, 'and is now a potential target for future bears.'
Instead, Gross recommended exposure to the natural gas infrastructure through the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP), and gave a positive outlook for Nuance Communications and Acceleron Pharma.
Gross joked that at age 77, he was too old to play himself in a movie about his life.
'They're thinking of Jake Gyllenhaal! But I would have preferred Tom Hanks,' he wrote.
Gross made his fortune running PIMCO Investment management, and his nemesis Towfiq is a tech entrepreneur. Gross purchased the Laguna Beach mansion, dubbed Rockledge-by-the-Sea, for $32million in 2018.
Towfiq built his dream home on the lot next door after purchasing it in 2009 and winning a protracted legal battle with another neighbor who claimed the project would impede coastal access.
Gross's neighbor Towfiq (pictured) accused Gross of trying to get revenge for his complaints about the netting by playing music at extreme volumes, specifically the Gilligan's Island theme
Gross's wife Amy is scared to enjoy her oceanfront Laguna Beach backyard thanks to an ongoing petty fight with her neighbor over loud music, 'unsightly' netting on lawn sculpture
At one point in the legal battle, Towfiq rejected Gross's offer to settle their cases by making donations to charity, dismissing the move as a stunt.
Gross went on to donate $500,000 to an organization regardless, in a bid to shame his opponent into settling the case.
Gross announced that he was giving the money to food banks and other charities supporting COVID relief efforts around his Laguna Beach home.
He also issued a press release
