A Russian wife has been awarded one of the highest divorce settlements ever made by an English court after a judge ruled that she should receive more than £53 million from her ex-husband.
7:24PM BST 14 Aug 2013
However, the woman is likely to have to spend much of the money on trying to
enforce the High Court order against her former partner, described as a
“shady puppet master” who had tried to hide his fabulous riches.
The 48-year-old wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, met her
49-year-old husband in 1987 in the Russian factory where they both worked.
He was a telephone technician and she worked in the cultural department.
They married in 1991 and had two children together. In 2005 they moved to
Britain, where they lived a "lavish lifestyle" in a £3.8 million home in
central London.
The wife divorced her husband in Russia in 2009, and went on to apply for a
financial settlement at the High Court in London.
In a judgment made public on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Eleanor King strongly
criticised the wealthy businessman for refusing to co-operate with the legal
proceedings and being in contempt of court “many times over”.
She said: "The case has been a fantastic charade with the husband a shady
puppet master in the background.
"At fabulous cost - £1.4 million and counting - those representing the wife have crossed and re-crossed the globe in an attempt to trace the husband's assets, every penny of which has been acquired during the course of the marriage."
The wife’s QC put the husband’s known assets at about £107 million, made up of 11 commercial properties in Russia and eight properties in England.
The judge ruled that this should be split 50-50 with the wife and awarded her £53,531,168, including a lump sum of £38 million.
She said: "The husband was the wealth creator, the wife the homemaker. Each contributed fully to the marriage.
"I am satisfied that all the family's wealth was created during the course of the marriage."
However, Mrs Justice Eleanor King admitted that the wife would face “very substantial costs” in enforcing the settlement against her husband.
She said: "In my judgment this is a case where, notwithstanding the formidable challenges for the wife in enforcing a lump sum order, it would be iniquitous if the husband was permitted, by virtue of his appalling litigation misconduct, to drive the court into an order which is substantially less than that which by virtue of the sharing principle, she would otherwise receive."
(Telegraph)
"At fabulous cost - £1.4 million and counting - those representing the wife have crossed and re-crossed the globe in an attempt to trace the husband's assets, every penny of which has been acquired during the course of the marriage."
The wife’s QC put the husband’s known assets at about £107 million, made up of 11 commercial properties in Russia and eight properties in England.
The judge ruled that this should be split 50-50 with the wife and awarded her £53,531,168, including a lump sum of £38 million.
She said: "The husband was the wealth creator, the wife the homemaker. Each contributed fully to the marriage.
"I am satisfied that all the family's wealth was created during the course of the marriage."
However, Mrs Justice Eleanor King admitted that the wife would face “very substantial costs” in enforcing the settlement against her husband.
She said: "In my judgment this is a case where, notwithstanding the formidable challenges for the wife in enforcing a lump sum order, it would be iniquitous if the husband was permitted, by virtue of his appalling litigation misconduct, to drive the court into an order which is substantially less than that which by virtue of the sharing principle, she would otherwise receive."
(Telegraph)
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