A former London oil and gas trader has been ordered to pay his estranged wife £453m in a divorce settlement by a High Court judge.
The 61-year-old man, from the Caucasus, built up a fortune in the Russian energy business.
The sum awarded to his 44-year-old spouse amounts to 41.5% of their “total marital assets”.
She had contended the “total net marital wealth” was just over £1bn and had been built up during a long marriage through “equal contributions to the welfare of the family”.
Her husband argued he had made a “special contribution” towards the family wealth, but decided two weeks before a trial to “no longer contest proceedings”, the reasons for which were “unclear”, said the presiding judge.
Such family hearings are usually conducted in private, but it is thought the award could be the biggest made by a UK divorce court judge.
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