BREAKING: Ex-wife of Russian oligarch SETTLES her claim for Britain’s biggest divorce and accepts £150m after claiming £350m and failing in bid to seize £225m superyacht

• Farkhad Akmedov was fighting a divorce with former wife Tatiana Akhmedova
• She was awarded a £453million settlement by London’s High Court in 2016
• Tycoon Akhmedov refused to acknowledge it, saying they divorced in Russia
• He has now announced the battle is over and she has settled for £150million 
• The superyacht Luna was part of the court battle which has spanned the globe
• Ms Akhmedova will also have to pay £74.5million to her financial backers Burford

The ex-wife of a Russian oligarch who was awarded Britain’s biggest divorce payout of £453million has walked away with a settlement of just £150million, her husband has announced. 

Tatiana Akhmedova is said to have abandoned her fight to enforce the High Court judgement which awarded her the record matrimonial settlement. 

She has instead accepted a cash and art settlement worth around one-third of that sum.

Ms Akhmedova will also have to pay £74.5million to her financial backers, Burford Capital. 

A spokesman for Farkhad Akhmedov said: ‘The intervention in a case over which the English Court should have had no jurisdiction and the involvement of Burford ultimately achieved nothing for Tatiana.

‘Burford and she spent years and millions of pounds on a costly global tour of various jurisdictions in their attempts to seize Luna. Every one of them failed and the yacht remains and will remain in the ownership of Farkhad and the family trusts. 

‘Tatiana has ended up with not a penny more than she was offered by her ex-husband six years ago. Farkhad has provided no payment to Burford. Those monies will have to be paid by Tatiana, thus reducing further to her the benefit of a settlement she could have had before the lawyers and financiers got involved.’ 

A spokesman for his ex wife could not be reached for comment. 

Akhmedov refused to accept the British divorce courts decision to pay his wife £453m claiming he and his wife were already divorced when they lived in Moscow

Central to the former couple’s dispute was Akhmedov’s £350million superyacht (pictured) 

From Russia but living in London, she was awarded a 41.5% share of ex-husband Farkhad Akhmedov’s £1 billion-plus fortune by Mr Justice Haddon-Cave in late 2016.

Mr Akhmedov did not pay and Ms Akhmedova took legal action in Britain and abroad in a bid to trace and seize his assets.

In preparation for the case, Ms Akhmedova said she has employed an asset recovery team, which includes former members of the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service.

In May her spokesman revealed assets worth millions of pounds, including a helicopter and speedboat, had been recovered.

At the time, the spokesman said Ms Akhmedova also thought she was in a position to lay claim to a superyacht, the Luna, which is worth more than £200 million and moored in Dubai.

He said a court ruling in the Marshall Islands, where the yacht is registered, had paved the way for the ownership to be transferred.

A spokesman for Mr Akhmedov disagreed.

The 115 metre-long ship (pictured) which Akhmedov bought from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has been impounded in Dubai while the warring ex-couple fight over his assets   

Tatiana had applied to a court in the Marshall Islands, where it is registered, to take over ownership of the 115 metre Luna (above) as part of her £453million divorce settlement

Russian oil and gas tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov (left), 64, is fighting his ex-wife Tatiana Akhmedova (right), 48, over a £453million divorce settlement she was awarded in London

He said a court ruling in Dubai prevented Ms Akhmedova seizing the yacht.

Mr Akhmedov says that, because he and his ex-wife are not British and were not married in Britain, a British judge should not have made a decision about money.

Earlier this year, another London High Court judge concluded that Ms Akhmedova had been a victim of a ‘series of schemes’ designed to put ‘every penny’ beyond her reach.

Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles, who has overseen recent litigation, concluded that her ex-husband and eldest son, Temur Akhmedov, had worked against her together.

She said Temur Akhmedov had been his father’s ‘lieutenant’.

The judge said very large sums had been transferred to Temur Akhmedov and ruled that he must pay his mother around £75 million.

Burford Capital is one of a number of litigation funding firms who have grown in recent years as class action lawsuits become more common in the UK.

Rival Therium Litigation Funding is currently backing a group of pension funds and asset managers who will find out this week if they can form a group to launch proceedings against several big banks for allegedly fixing foreign exchange rates.

Former Pensions Regulator Michael O’Higgins is leading the legal action, which could see a payout of £1 billion to customers who lost out.

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