Russia’s second-richest man might be pressured to pay one of many largest divorce payments in historical past, as his ex-wife sues him for 1 / 4 of his fortune in a British courtroom.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Vladimir Potanin faces a brand new authorized battle along with his former partner in a civil go well with filed in London. British judges have beforehand been identified to divide a pair’s belongings equally in such instances.
Potanin is value round $ 30 billion, in keeping with Forbes, a lot of it thanks to an enormous stake in Russian mining firm Norilsk Nickel. However he stands to lose greater than $ 7 billion of that fortune if his ex-wife, Natalia Potanina, succeeds in suing him for 50% of his shares within the agency, which is without doubt one of the world’s largest metallic producers.
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If backed by the choose, Potanina would stand to gather the third-largest divorce payout in historical past, after these involving Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft pioneer Invoice Gates. In 2019, Bezos paid his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, $ 38 billion value of inventory in his firm, instantly making her one of many richest girls on the planet. Earlier this 12 months, it was reported that Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, could be splitting a fortune value greater than $ 131 billion following their separation.
The most important publicly identified divorce payout within the UK, the place the case will likely be heard, is $ 631 million, which went to the spouse of billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, though the 2 are understood to have settled with a fee value lower than a 3rd of that quantity.
Potanina claims to have already obtained $ 40 million after divorce proceedings in Russia, whereas Potanin insists that she acquired $ 84 million. In a earlier resolution, a British choose known as this a “paltry award” contemplating his wealth and their 31-year marriage.
Potanina efficiently overturned a call in a decrease courtroom that accused her of “divorce tourism.” Her ex-husband is now ready to listen to whether or not the UK Supreme Court docket will contemplate his attraction to throw out the case.
The billionaire businessman made his fortune within the 1990s, after the autumn of the Soviet Union, when he acquired his stake in Norilsk Nickel by way of the controversial ‘loans for shares’ program, which created different ultra-wealthy tycoons akin to Roman Abramovich. He and Potanina married in 1983 and introduced their divorce in 2014.
