Court rules on Dubai-moored superyacht at centre of record UK divorce settlement
The ownership of a 380-foot superyacht at the heart of the divorce settlement between Russian oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov and his ex-wife Tatiana has been decided in a Pacific Islands court.
The Luna, a nine-deck vessel worth $353 million, has been
moored in Port Rashid in Dubai for more than two years while the couple
negotiated their divorce.
Mrs Akhmedova hoped to make the yacht part of her $640m
settlement, and this month a court in the Marshall Islands ruled in her favour.
The chain of volcanic islands might not seem an obvious
place to fight out a divorce, but a ship is bound by the law of the flag it
flies, and the Luna carries the flag of the Marshall Islands.
The ruling in Mrs Akhmedova's favour, however, was
overturned by the Supreme Court of the Pacific Islands, according to The Times
newspaper.
That returns the matter to Dubai's local courts, which have
rejected a London court's determination of a matrimonial dispute after Mr
Akhmedov argued it was incompatible with Sharia.
The long-running litigation has moved repeatedly between
jurisdictions, as Mr Akhmedov attempts to avoid paying out the sum awarded to his
wife of 21 years in a London court.
The Azerbaijan-born tycoon described the 2016 divorce order
issued in in Britain as illegitimate, and wrote in a WhatsApp message to his
son, “I will burn this money rather then will give her.”
He moved assets into Liechtenstein trusts, including $140m
of artworks, such as paintings by Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko.
Mrs Akhmedova also accused her 27-year-old son Temur of
hiding money, alleging his father transferred assets into his name.
She won this case, and the High Court in London ordered the
junior Mr Akhmedov to pay his mother more than $100m in three sums to his
mother – two in US dollars and one in Russian rubles.
The Luna had appeared to be the one asset Mrs Akhmedova
could win, but with this latest ruling the vessel seems to have slipped from
her grasp.
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