Former wife of tycoon to get yacht ownership
TATIANA’S LEGAL TEAM WELCOME RULING, ACCUSING AKHMEDOV’S OF ‘UNDERHAND TACTICS’
Tatiana’s legal team welcomes UK court ruling, accuses Akhmedov of ‘underhand tactics’
ALondon High Court judge yesterday handed down an ‘enforcement order’ that ownership of $540-million superyacht Luna, now impounded in Dubai, be immediately transferred to the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire, who is fighting for release of the vessel, amid what is believed to be the UK’s most expensive divorce.
Justice Haddon-Cave’s judgement, obtained by Gulf News, is the latest in a string of court orders attempting to recover a $641-million divorce settlement two years ago awarded to ex-wife Tatiana Mikhavilovna Akhmedova against oil and gas tycoon Farkad Akhmedov, who is disputing the UK Courts’ jurisdiction.
In February, agents acting on behalf of the High Court temporarily seized the Luna in Dubai, but last week, Akhmedov’s family trust, Straight Establishment, won the right to appeal the seizure through an oral hearing at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts.
In his ruling in London, Justice Haddon-Cave wrote: “In my judgement, it is clear that Straight is simply another ‘cipher’ and alter ego of [Mr Akhmedov} and another attempt by [him] to evade enforcement.”
The judge added that he believed that Akhmedov put the Luna in dry dock in Dubai in October 2017 to place it “well beyond the reach of an English Court judgement”, but Ms Akhmedova’s legal counsel “Messrs Withers, however, knew better”.
He also wrote that Akhmedov had created Straight as a corporate entity and owner of Luna to evade enforcement of the December 2016 settlement.
In his judgement, he asserted that “it is clear from the evidence that Straight was incorporated deliberately to make enforcement of the judgement against [Mr Akhmedov] more difficult by the interposition of a ‘fresh’ corporate entity, against which judgement had not been entered”.
“I am satisfied that the making of an order piercing the ‘corporate veil’ is clearly necessary in the interests of justice. This court’s order and judgement must be taken to the DIFC to be enforced,” he wrote. “It is quite possible that the only order that the DIFC Courts will recognise and enforce is an order of this court based on a finding that [Mr Akhmedov] has used Straight in a dishonest fashion as to evade enforcement of the judgement. There is, conversely, a possibility, that if no such order is made, [Ms Akhmedov’s] efforts to enforce the judgement in Dubai could fail altogether.”
In a statement sent to Gulf News from London yesterday, Akhmedova’s legal team said: “Akhmedov has employed a series of evasive and underhand tactics aimed at frustrating attempts to enforce the judgement made by the English Court against him. We are very pleased that the High Court has recognised this today and that Mr Justice Haddon-Cave has taken the uncommon step of ‘piercing the corporate veil’ in recognising that the companies owning Akhmedov’s assets are simply his tools,” the statement read. “It is our hope that today’s judgement, assigning beneficial ownership of Luna to Ms Akhmedova, with the cooperation of the DIFC Courts [where proceedings are ongoing] will help to bring about a resolution of this long-running dispute.”
Akhmedov told Gulf News through a spokesperson yesterday that “this judgement is just another example of how my exwife and her legal team have manipulated the English court system in a case which should never have been brought before it. The judgement, like the previous matrimonial award, lacks any legal validity. It will have no bearing on the appeal hearing which the DIFC has properly granted to the family trust which owns the Luna.”
He said the appeal “will be heard next month. Any idea that the yacht can be sold or handed over to Ms Akhmedova is fanciful. For that to happen — by the time all legal procedures were exhausted — would take years.
“By then, the yacht’s value could have depreciated to such an extent that, even if Tatiana was ultimately victorious, it would be a completely hollow victory since the vessel could by then only be sold for scrap. In this scenario, the only winners would be the lawyers,” he said.