[imagesource: Paul Keogh]

If you’ve been through a divorce, you know it can get messy.

Add immense wealth and a less than iron-clad prenuptial agreement into the mix and you have the perfect storm.

If one of the parties is a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin, you’re really in for a wild ride.

This appears to be the case for what The Guardian refers to as “Britain’s biggest, bitterest marital breakup” between Farkhad Akhmedov and his wife, Tatiana Akhmedova (above).

It is proving to be a very modern divorce. Armies of lawyers and advisers; hundreds of millions of pounds at stake; priceless art; a superyacht; a key lieutenant switching sides; the son dragged into the proceedings by his mother. No wonder some involved have likened it to The War of the Roses, the dark Hollywood comedy about a feuding couple starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

The courts have been forced to base their decision on an arcane practice, whereby third parties can finance another person’s legal claim. This is illegal in some countries.

The practice, known as champerty, dates back to feudal times, when noblemen would lend their high-profile support to legal claims in return for a share of any successful claim to recovered property.

The third-party in question is Burford Capital, a litigation finance firm that will take a cut of Akhmedova’s payout if it succeeds in recovering the £453 million (over R10 billion) that she was awarded by the high court.

Now her own son has turned on her, too:

Lawyers for Temur, 26, will argue that his mother’s claim is unlawful because it is being funded by a third party for financial gain.

There’s a fair amount at stake for both Akhmedov and Akhmedova.

The pair have been at loggerheads since December 2016 when the high court awarded Tatiana Akhmedova, 52, a record £453m, representing a 41.5% share of her husband’s marital assets.

[Akhmedov] had claimed that documents prove the couple were divorced 20 years ago in Moscow and therefore his ex-wife’s attempts to seize his assets – which include works by Rothko, Warhol and Hirst, not to mention a $450m superyacht once owned by Roman Abramovich – were fraudulent.

The court said that they couldn’t find any evidence of the prior divorce. I guess what happens in Russia, really does stay in Russia.

You can read more about this mess, and some of the complicated legal gymnastics in play, here.

[source:guardian]