Financier loses court fight with his ex-wife over charity

A FINANCIER has lost a Supreme Court fight with his ex-wife after becoming embroiled in a dispute involving a children’s charity which they set up.

Sir Chris Hohn and Jamie Cooper became involved in the dispute after fighting one of London’s biggest divorce battles. A judge ordered Sir Chris to hand about a third of a £1bn fortune to Ms Cooper in 2014.

They subsequently found themselves on opposite sides of a dispute involving the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

It centred on whether the foundation should make a grant of more than £270m to a similar charity, Big Win Philanthropy, set up by Ms Cooper after the divorce. Five Supreme Court justices ruled in Ms Cooper’s favour yesterday.

Sir Chris and Ms Cooper had set up the foundation nearly 20 years ago in a bid to improve the lives of children in developing countries. The marriage breakdown made the foundation difficult to manage.

The former couple had agreed that, in exchange for the grant to Big Win Philanthropy, she would resign as a member and trustee of the foundation. However, both had recused themselves from voting on the proposal.

Justices were asked to decide whether a judge could tell the third foundation member, Marko Lehtimaki, how to vote.

A judge initially decided that the grant would be in the foundation’s best interests, and ordered Dr Lehtimaki to vote to approve it. But Dr Lehtimaki, backed by Sir Chris, mounted a successful challenge to that decision.

Court of Appeal judges ruled that a judge could not direct Dr Lehtimaki “on how he should exercise his powers”.

Ms Cooper then asked Supreme Court justices to overturn the Court of Appeal ruling. Justices allowed Ms Cooper’s appeal and have now made an order requiring Dr Lehtimaki to vote “in favour of the resolution”.