Who will get the $500 million yacht is at the heart of what is being called the most expensive divorce in Britain as Russian oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov and his estranged wife fight for the vessel, according to CNBC.
Akhmedova is refusing to hand over the luxury yacht, which is currently impounded in Dubai on behalf of the United Kingdom High Court, where it appeared for maintenance work, the network said.
He was ordered to surrender the nine-deck yacht to Tatiana Akhmedov earlier this year, but the billionaire is not budging, CNBC noted. The yacht, the Luna, has two heliports, a spa, swimming pool, and supports a crew of 50, according to the network.
In 2016, Akhmedov refused to pay a court-ordered $646 million to his ex-wife, CNBC wrote. The couple married in 1993 and moved to London where Akhmedov purchased helicopters, vintage cars, fine art and several homes, the CNBC said.
The yacht, though, is proving one of the most contentious issues. A Dubai court ruled in May that a freeze order for the yacht would remain in place at least through this month until a hearing can be heard, according to The National.
The yacht is secured in a family trust, called Straight Establishment, making the legal ownership of the vessel murky, the website said.
Forbes said Farkhad Akhmedov is worth $1.4 billion, built after he started selling Russian sables at the London commodity exchange. He founded Tansley Trading in 1987, which supplied equipment to Russian gas producers, the magazine noted.
He became a minority shareholder in Nortgas, an oil and gas company in Siberia, Forbes wrote. In 1998 he bought out the 44 percent stake of another investor, Bechtel Energy, and became chairman, according to the magazine.
Akhmedov has claimed that the couple had already started divorce proceedings in Russia more than a decade earlier, according to CNBC. The judge, though, charged that divorce paperwork was forged and that Akhmedov had been hiding his assets in "a web of offshore companies."
Tatiana Akhmedova has hired Burford Capital, a litigation finance firm, that's helping to finance her side of the legal battle, CNBC wrote. The company, with offices in the United States and Britain, is backing her efforts in hopes of getting a cut of the settlement and gave her a lump sum for living expenses, the network reported.
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