LONDON – The High Court ruled that a Russian-born billionaire must pay £453 million in a divorce settlement, according to The Times which covered the private hearing.
Justice Haddon-Cave ruled on Thursday that the anonymous billionaire should give the largest sum of its kind to his ex-wife because she was a “hands-on” mother and that she made an equal contribution to their marriage, which spanned over two decades.
The couple had two children together, who are now grown up, and the court heard how she brought up the two boys without the assistance of a nanny. She also cared for ex-husband’s first child from his first marriage.
The amount comes from the court awarding her 41.5% of the “marital assets” worth just over £1 billion.
Both he and his ex-wife wished to remain anonymous and their identities cannot be disclosed by the press. The anonymous billionaire would be classed as one of the richest people in Britain. That is according to the Sunday Times Rich List, which ranks the 1,000 richest people in the UK, shows that the lowest entry has a net worth of £110 million.
However, The Times report disclosed details of couple without naming them.
The Russian-born man is 61-years-old and worked in London as an oil and gas trader and made a substantial fortune five years ago when he sold his shares in a Russian company for $1.3 billion, which by current measurements is £1.01 billion.
The woman is 44-years-old and was born in Eastern Europe. She was a "housewife and a mother throughout the marriage." She still lives in the former-family home in Surrey.
The man met his ex-wife in 1989 while she was studying in Moscow. They married four years later in Moscow and then moved to London the same year. They were then both were given indefinite leave to remain in Britain. Meanwhile, the woman obtained British citizenship 15 years ago.