The former wife of an oil and gas trader has been awarded £453 million in financial remedy proceedings against her former husband. It is thought to be one of the largest divorce awards in the UK.
The husband is 61 and the wife is 44. They married in Moscow in July 1993 and moved to London in the same year. In 2012, the husband sold shares in a Russian company for US$1.375 billion. The wife had been a ‘hands on’ mother and housewife throughout the marriage.
In addition to a lump sum payment of £350 million (and the assets she already had of £10,165,162), the wife also sought a further £93,060,990 comprising the following:
(1) The chattels valued at £2,479,125;
(2) An Aston Martin valued at £350,000;
(3) A modern art collection valued on a sale basis at US$112m.
The Judge found the total value of the wife’s claim to be £453,576,152, and considered an award of that sum to be justified in all the circumstances.