BILLIONAIRE SETTLES DIVORCE WITH $186M DEAL

Billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov agreed to pay his ex-wife the equivalent of around US$186 million, ending the largest financial dispute Britain's divorce courts have seen.

Tatiana Akhmedova accepted a cash-and-art settlement of about one-third of a 2016 court award, while Akhmedov, pictured, will retain his 115-metre, nine-deck superyacht Luna, his single largest asset.

A London judge awarded Tatiana about 41 per cent of Farkhad's assets in 2016. She has been funded by litigation finance group Burford Capital Ltd., which said it will receive US$103 million.

Azerbaijan-born Farkhad has refused to make divorce payments, calling the divorce order illegitimate and moving to Russia. Tatiana has lived in London with their two children since 1993. The marriage formally ended in late 2014.

The two had sought to end the dispute earlier in the year after Tatiana won a case against her son, Temur, who was said to have helped his father hide assets.

After that ruling, the judge called the family one of the unhappiest ever to have appeared in her courtroom.