The Scottish Mail on Sunday

British banker jumps ship in bitter Russian divorce battle

He is the Putin pal ordered to hand his ex-wife £453MILLION She got just £5m – but now a key aide has switched sides

- By Ben Harrington

AFORMER Goldman Sachs and UBS banker has become embroiled in Britain’s biggest divorce row after court papers revealed how he switched sides from the husband to the exwife to expose potential fraud.

Ross Henderson, who is British, worked privately for around a year for Farkhad Akhmedov, the Russian billionair­e who is being chased by his former wife Tatiana Akhmedova for £453million.

In 2016, a judge ordered Mr Akhmedov, who is said to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to pay the sum – equal to 41.5 per cent of his wealth – to his ex-wife.

The 64-year-old’s assets include MV Luna, a £227 million superyacht built for Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

But Ms Akhmedova, who is in her 40s, has reportedly so far recovered only £5 million of the total. She has returned to court to force Mr Akhmedov to hand over the remaining money.

In papers connected to the case, Mr Henderson is revealed to have handed Ms Akhmedova’s lawyers sensitive emails and documents about her ex-husband’s affairs.

These were acquired by Mr Henderson during his time working for the oligarch. Some of the emails and documents are thought to provide vital clues about his complex financial arrangemen­ts.

The court papers also reveal that Mr Henderson is now employed by a firm working for Ms Akhmedova.

Mr Henderson first met Mr Akhmedov while working at UBS. In 2014, they struck a deal for the Briton to set up and run a company, Cotor Asset Management, as the tycoon’s family office in Switzerlan­d. A year later the pair fell out and Mr Akhmedov fired Mr Henderson.

The court papers state that Mr Henderson copied emails and documents from the hard drive of the office computer on to a personal server as Cotor Asset Management was being wound up in 2017.

In May 2017, Mr Henderson contacted Ms Akhmedova to offer her help with managing her ‘interests and her litigation enforcemen­t efforts’. Mr Henderson said there were no talks at that time about the documents he had downloaded from Mr Akhmedov’s defunct family office.

Then in November 2017, Mr Henderson gave Ms Akhmedova’s Liechtenst­ein and Switzerlan­dbased lawyers a USB stick containing some of the documents relevant to Mr Akhmedov’s affairs.

While Mr Henderson and his firm, Sparten, now provide services to Ms Akhmedova, the ex-Goldman and UBS banker said the informatio­n was not provided to Ms Akhmedova on the condition she engaged him to work on her case.

Ms Akhmedova’s lawyers in Britain asked an independen­t barrister to review the documents for material that was confidenti­al or sensitive. The study found the majority of the documents were confidenti­al, or in legal terms ‘privileged’.

Crucially, however, it concluded that 244 of the documents could be used in a legal case because they may have demonstrat­ed potential fraud or grossly unfair behaviour by Mr Akhmedov that may have impeded his ex-wife’s attempts to recover money. These were then presented to the court as ‘reviewable’ documents.

THE barrister stated: ‘There is a very strong prima facie case that [Mr Akhmedov] instructed his lawyers to seek to effect transactio­ns and asset holding structures which would defeat ability to enforce an expected order against him.’

In a judgment handed down in the High Court, Mrs Justice Knowles agreed, saying: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, I am satisfied that the reviewable documents are not confidenti­al (or that no relief should be granted to protect any confidenti­ality) and that the “fraud” exception to privilege applies. There is no reason therefore to order that the wife should return or make no use of the reviewable documents.’

Ms Akhmedova is now free to use the documents in the divorce row.

Last month, she accused her son, Temur Akhmedov, 26, a commoditie­s futures trader, of conspiring with his father, her ex-husband, to frustrate the enforcemen­t of the £453million divorce order. They both deny any wrongdoing.

Separate court papers reveal Temur Akhmedov has requested access to the documents provided by Mr Henderson.

Ms Akhmedova has recruited litigation experts Burford Capital to help her recover the £453million. However, the AIM-listed litigation funder has come under attack from short-sellers – who bet against company shares and stand to gain if the price falls.

Research firm

Muddy Waters, which is run by short-seller Carson Block, questioned the strength of Burford Capital’s accounts and the way it is run in a scathing note last year. It criticised Burford for its involvemen­t in the Akhmedov case. The Muddy Waters allegation­s resulted in Burford Capital’s share price falling by 70 per cent.

Mr Henderson, Mr Akhmedov and a spokespers­on for Ms Akhmedova declined to comment.

 ??  ?? SPLIT: Tatiana akhmedova was awarded 40 per cent of her ex-husband’s fortune which includes a £227million superyacht BILLIONAIR­E: Farkhad akhmedov sacked British aide Ross Henderson
SPLIT: Tatiana akhmedova was awarded 40 per cent of her ex-husband’s fortune which includes a £227million superyacht BILLIONAIR­E: Farkhad akhmedov sacked British aide Ross Henderson

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