Tycoon may lose £340m yacht to ex-wife after divorce court ruling

A High Court judge has cleared the way for a divorcee owed more than £450 million by her Russian billionaire ex-husband to be awarded his super-yacht and art collection, in the latest round of a long-running legal dispute.

Tatiana Akhmedova, who lives in London, was awarded a 41.5 per cent share of businessman Farkhad Akhmedov’s £1 billion-plus fortune by a British judge in late 2016.

She has argued that Mr Akhmedov has yet to hand over the vast majority of the £453 million Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, who analysed the case at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said she should get.

Judges have heard that she has so far been given only about £5 million and that Mr Akhmedov has not “voluntarily” paid a penny.

The billionaire oil and gas tycoon believes the decision should not have been made by a British judge because his ex-wife is from eastern Europe and the couple were not married in this country. Ms Akhmedova claims he has attempted to place assets beyond her reach and has taken legal action in Britain and overseas to get hold of what she is owed.

This has led to her becoming embroiled in litigation with a number of trusts based in Liechtenstein, into which Mr Akhmedov has transferred assets.

Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles was told how Mr Akhmedov had transferred a superyacht, the Luna, worth around £340 million, and an art collection, with an estimated worth of £110 million, into the ownership of a number of trusts in the central European country. Trustees had asked her to release them from their “obligations to execute transfers”, arguing that orders telling them to transfer the yacht and art collection would “require” them to act in “violation of the law of Liechtenstein”.

The judge analysed arguments at virtual hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in June and published a ruling yesterday in which their application was refused.

Trustees of two Liechtenstein trusts, into which Mr Akhmedov had transferred “monetary assets”, had also said proceedings brought against them in London by Ms Akhmedova should be halted and dismissed. Mrs Justice Knowles also denied those applications. The £453 million Mr Justice Haddon-Cave awarded Ms Akhmedova is thought to be the biggest award made by a divorce court judge in England.

He said Ms Akhmedova had been a British citizen since 2000. She had been a housewife and mother to the couple’s now grown-up sons.

Ms Akhmedova has also taken legal action against her 26-year-old son Temur, who she says is his father’s “lieutenant”. Temur, a London trader, disputes allegations made against him.