How to divorce a millionaire

PRESS CUTTING
The Moscow News
18 July 2011 (pg1 of 3)
How to divorce a millionaire
By Anna Sulimina
While the idea of marrying for money may be as old as the hills, the concept of divorcing for money is
relatively new among Russians. But with an increasing number of oligarchs' exspouses bagging mammoth
shares in the riches of their recently ditched other halves, the phenomenon seems to be turning into a bit of
a fad.
And with the unlikely combination of both the world’s highest divorce rate and the highest number of
billionaires, it is the Russians who are leading the way in the lucrative art of divorce.
The world’s alleged highest divorce earner to date is Russian Irina Abramovich, a former flight attendant who
reportedly obtained a tidy sum of 6 billion British pounds ($9.7 billion) by divorcing Chelsea Football Club
owner Roman Abramovich with the help of celebrity divorce lawyer Raymond Tooth.
PRESS CUTTING
The Moscow News
18 July 2011 (pg2 of 3)
Location matters
Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich
But like any money-making scheme, a bank account-boosting divorce requires some crafty forward planning.
One important factor to bear in mind is location, since financial disputes are usually settled under the laws of
the couple’s permanent place of residence.
Roman Abramovich, it seems, took a costly decision when he chose to move his wife and five children to live
in Britain. Matrimonial lawyers say that if the divorce had taken place under Russian law, Irina’s share in her
ex-husband’s fortune would have been far more modest.
Another high-profile Russian tycoon, potash billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, became embroiled in Swiss
divorce legislation after his wife sought half of his assets in their country of residence.
“In Russia, divorce falls under the Family Code and all possessions are shared equally between the
spouses; if a prenuptial agreement has been signed, property is shared out accordingly,” said Lyudmila
Markina, a solicitor at the Moscow Chamber of Solicitors.
Legislation in countries such as Germany, Austria and Britain favors foreign brides in divorce settlements,
while the United States and most Arab countries favor the husband.
The distribution of property also varies from country to country, with some legal systems splitting all property
owned between the two partners, regardless of who bought what when. Russian law allows spouses to
maintain full possession of any share in any property they have bought.
Pre-nuptial bliss
Billionaire divorcee Svetlana Abramovich
If you happen to be on the wealthy side of a high-profile marriage, the best way to avoid getting stuck with a
gold-digging ex-wife is to sign a pre-nuptial agreement in which the less-well-off spouse promises not to ask
for more than a certain amount of money.
Although such contracts are still a rarity in Russia, they are already common in the United States and some
other Western countries, especially among mixed-nationality marriages.
PRESS CUTTING
The Moscow News
18 July 2011 (pg3 of 3)
“If an American or British person is used to the matrimonial law in their home country and wants it to be
used, a pre-nuptial agreement should be signed,” said Roman Bexborodov, head of the Rossyurist law firm.
Pre-nups can be changed during the course of a marriage and in some cases they may be annulled during a
divorce, if they are considered enslaving or adversely unfair to one party.
Desperate measures
Russia has the highest divorce rate in the world
But while a wealthy spouse may happily sign away half their earnings to their other half when times are
good, living up to the promise in the midst of a vicious divorce can be an entirely different story.
Steven Philippsohn, senior partner at London-based PCB Litigation law firm says that many wealthy
spouses adopt desperate measures to try to keep their riches for themselves.
“Even when there is a pre-nuptial agreement, it sometimes happens that the party with the money discloses
only a limited amount of money and attempts to restructure their assets or simply hide all the rest,”
Philippsohn said.
PCB handled the highly-publicized case of U.S. musician Michelle Young and her millionaire husband Scot
Young. Although he had generously agreed to share his riches with his wife, his money mysteriously
disappeared shortly after the divorce was filed.
Scot Young claimed he had gone bankrupt after investing in a risky project in Moscow, but was unable to
drop his habit of hanging out in expensive restaurants. The money later emerged in an offshore bank
account.
PCB’s lawyers say they are usually able to uncover assets that go walkabout in such cases.
“In a number of in high-profile divorce cases the banking account is in England, the assets are offshore, for
example in Switzerland, and there is a ship or plane somewhere,” Philippsohn said. “Under court orders, we
are able to arrest the ship, freeze the money and put a restraining order on selling the house.”