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Mr Farkhad Akhmedov made headlines twice this week. First when he featured on the list of Russian persons close to the Kremlin (mostly contacts of President Putin) which were in risk of being smacked with sanctions that the US treasury sent out, and secondly, when a new episode was brought forward in what is easily the biggest ever divorce case in the UK.
During a divorce ruling in 2016, Mr Akhmedov was ordered to give his ex-wife Tatiana 41.5 per cent of his “staggering” wealth by a High Court judge. However, as Miss Tatiana ‘feared for her personal safety’, a gagging order prevented the press from revealing their names during the proceedings back then.
But yesterday, as the couple made its way to the court of appeals, there was no such gag order and the public was introduced to the oligarch couple’s lifestyle and their ‘financial issues.’
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oligarch’s blues: Putin contact fights ex‑wife over £453m divorce order<a href="https://t.co/TCs7tOrBCz">https://t.co/TCs7tOrBCz</a></p>— Greg Scribbler (@agscribbler) <a href="https://twitter.com/agscribbler/status/958976358134185984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Miss Akhmedov claims that, despite the court's order, she has to date received almost 'nothing' from her ex. Her lawyer told the Court of Appeal today that she was just 17 when she met her ex, was pregnant by 21 and when they married in 1993, he decided that they should move to England. Furthermore, it was because of his lifestyle that she was ‘forced’ so sit home and do nothing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">⭐️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/News?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#News</a> • Farkhad Akhmedov and ex-wife in court over £453m divorce: Tatiana Akhmedova was… <a href="https://t.co/cFiLxjCP6f">https://t.co/cFiLxjCP6f</a></p>— Kazi UK™ 🇬🇧 (@Kazi_UK) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kazi_UK/status/958755953347842049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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“The husband has not paid a penny. Despite being awarded in aggregate £453,576,152 before interest and costs she has to date received nothing from him save for some de minimis assets in the UK.”
London has become known to the wealthy as the ‘divorce capital’ of the world, as this is where the judges tend to favor the weaker party of the couple it is claimed.
Mr John Oxley, a partner at law firm Vardags, said English divorce court judges take a different view to their foreign counterparts: “English law views marriage as a partnership and starts from the principle that the wealth built up during the marriage should be shared equally.”
“Where such a vast fortune is created during the marriage, the financially weaker party expects a huge award. This recognizes the idea that each spouse contributes to the other the best they can, without discriminating between the person making the money and the person who looks after the home.”
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