Divorcee fighting for £450m owed by her billionaire ex-husband

A WOMAN who is battling to get £450m that she is owed by her Russian billionaire ex-husband has accused businessmen she says have links to him of being in contempt of court.

Tatiana Akhmedova, who is aged in her 40s, was awarded a 41.5 per cent share of businessman Farkhad Akhmedov’s £1bnplus fortune by a British divorce court judge in late 2016.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, who analysed the case at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London, confirmed that Ms Akhmedova should walk away with £453m.

But the judge has heard that she has so far pocketed about £5m and that Mr Akhmedov has not “voluntarily” paid a penny.

Ms Akhmedova, meanwhile, says Mr Akhmedov has tried to put assets, including a £346m yacht – the MV Luna – and a modern art collection, beyond her reach by taking steps to ensure they are held in “entities and trust structures” in Liechtenstein.

She has begun contempt proceedings against directors of those entities and trusts.

A judge also based in the Family Division of the High Court has overseen a preliminary hearing relating to those proceedings and a trial is due to take place in London next year.

Lawyers representing those directors are disputing the allegations.

Ms Akhmedova has, separately, also taken steps to freeze assets and begun legal action abroad.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave’s £453m award is thought to be the biggest of its kind made in England and Wales.

He heard that Ms Akhmedova, a housewife, came from eastern Europe, but had been a British citizen since 2000.

She had been a housewife and mother to the couple’s now grown-up sons.

Mr Akhmedov argued he had made a “special contribution” to the generation of wealth.

However, Mr Justice HaddonCave concluded that both had made “equal contributions to the welfare of the family”.

Mr Akhmedov has claimed that because he and his former wife are not British, and were also not married in Britain, a British judge should not have made decisions.