The award sheds light on how divorce cases are major wealth/loss events for ultra-high net worth individuals, and also highlight how London remains for some a magnet for divorce cases. This specific case is said to be the largest ever for a payout in the UK.

The high court in London has ruled that the son of a Russian billionaire conspired with his father to prevent his mother from getting her hands on what is believed to be the country’s biggest-ever divorce award, worth around £450 million ($625 million), Associated Press and others reported.

The award sheds light on how divorce cases are major wealth/loss events for ultra-high net worth individuals, and also highlights how London remains for some a magnet for divorce cases.

Tatiana Akhmedova, 48, accused her ex-husband, 65-year-old Farkhad Akhmedov, of hiding assets and that their 27-year-old son, Temur Akhmedov, worked with him in hiding those assets.

In the family division of Britain’s High Court, Justice Gwynneth Knowles said that Temur Akhmedov had been his father’s “lieutenant” and “schemes” had been carried out with his “knowledge and active assistance.” The judge said that very large sums had been transferred to her son and concluded that he must pay her around £75 million (source: AP, 21 April). 

“Temur has learned well from his father’s past conduct and has done and said all he could to prevent his mother receiving a penny of the matrimonial assets,” the judge said in her written ruling. “He lied to this court on numerous occasions; breached court orders; and failed to provide full disclosure of his assets.”

Knowles compared the dysfunctional family goings-on to the opening of Leo Tolstoy’s classic Russian novel Anna Karenina.

The Tolstoy touch
“All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” she said in her written ruling. “With apologies to Tolstoy, the Akhmedov family is one of the unhappiest ever to have appeared in my courtroom.”

Akhmedova, who was awarded a 41.5 per cent share of her ex-husband’s fortune by another British judge in 2016, welcomed the ruling.

The court heard that so far Akhmedova has received about £5 million and that her ex-husband hasn’t “voluntarily” paid anything. She said her ex-husband had tried to put assets beyond her reach and that she has taken legal action in Britain and abroad in a bid to get hold of what she is owed.

Farkhad Akhmedov was dismissive of the ruling. “Entirely predictably, given its original wrong and misguided judgment, the London court has ruled in favour of visiting ‘the sins’ of the father on an innocent and loyal son,” he said.

And a spokesman for the son said that Temur Akhmedov had been “caught up in the break-up of his parents’ marriage” and had “never sought to take sides or get involved but inevitably found himself sucked into the vortex of a bitter family dispute.”

Akhmedova has already become embroiled in litigation with a number of trusts based in Liechtenstein, into which her ex-husband allegedly transferred assets. 

Reaction
“In the latest round of the Akhmedova divorce litigation, the High Court has continued to find in Tatiana’s favour with Knowles J finding for her against her son just as Haddon-Cave J (as he then was) had found for her against her husband. She has not had such luck against her husband in jurisdictions where his assets were actually situated, particularly in Dubai, and to this point the only asset she has got her hands on has been a helicopter, the value of which to her proceedings must now be very stretched," Henry Hood, partner and head of the family department at Hunters Law, said. 
 
"However, things may now be different if her son has significant assets, particularly land, available for enforcement in this jurisdiction. It appears that he has had in the past. This may be a game-changer for her,” Hood said.