A Russian billionaire who was ordered to pay £453 million to his former wife in what is believed to be Britain's biggest divorce case has been named as Farkhad Akhmedov. However, the High Court in London heard that his ex-wife, Tatiana Akhmedova, has not received 'a penny from him'.
Details of the settlement and the couple's lavish lifestyle were revealed in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Akhmedov, 62, who featured this week on the US 'Putin list' of officials and oligarchs close to the Kremlin, was ordered to give his 41-year-old ex-wife 41.5% of his 'staggering' wealth by a High Court judge in 2016.
The gas and oil tycoon, who is close friends with Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, married Akhmedova more than 20 years ago. The couple, who have two sons, moved to London in 1993 and lived in a £39 million mansion in Surrey and a £27.8 million holiday home.
Akhmedov is appealing against the divorce settlement. His lawyers claimed the judgment showed 'manifestly unjust' favouritism towards her by the British courts. She had argued she was due almost half of their £1 billion fortune due to her 'equal contributions to the welfare of the family' during their marriage.
Hodge Malek QC, for Akhmedova, told the Court of Appeal she was just 17 when she met her ex-husband, and 21 and pregnant when they married. He alleged that since the marriage broke down in 2013, her husband 'embarked on a deliberate campaign of trying to defeat the wife's claims by any means possible' and had shifted almost all of his wealth offshore.
The previous highest divorce payout was made public in 2014 when Jamie Cooper-Hohn was awarded £337 million. Such awards have given London the reputation of being 'the divorce capital of the world'.
