Russian Oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov, 61, is at the centre of Britain’s biggest divorce

A Russian oligarch ordered to hand his wife £453million in Britain’s biggest divorce today claimed he had received ‘no justice’ after his lawyer was forced to disclose full details of his multi-billion pound fortune.

Gas and oil tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov, 61, has shown a ‘naked determination’ to keep his immense fortune out of the reach of his former wife, Tatiana.

He was hit with a worldwide asset freezing order two years ago by a divorce judge who condemned his ‘cavalier attitude’ to the English courts.

But Mrs Akhmedova’s lawyers say that, apart from a few relatively low value trinkets, she has ‘to date received nothing’ from her ex. 

Now three Court of Appeal judges have come to Mrs Akhmedova’s aid in her worldwide quest to track down her ex-husband’s fortune.

They ruled that the oligarch’s former solicitor had rightly been ordered to reveal the whereabouts of his art collection, worth more than £90 million.

Tatiana Akhmedova, pictured arriving at an earlier court hearing with her divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton, was awarded £453million in her divorce settlement from her former husband

Although communications between Mr Akhmedov and the lawyer would normally be secret, the Court decided the case exceptional. 

But the tycoon today said the British courts were ‘wrong’ to intervene in their divorce in the first place as he had already provided for his ex-wife. 

His spokesman told MailOnline: ‘I’m neither surprised nor disappointed by this ruling, even though I had hoped that the higher court might have shown some impartiality.

‘Instead its decision proves again that there is no justice for in British courts. That is why I withdrew from the original divorce proceedings.

‘The British courts should never have sought to interfere in a former marriage which took place in Russia, between two Russian citizens and which had long been dissolved in that country with generous provision for my ex-wife.

‘In seeking a new settlement of that marriage both my ex-wife, for whose lavish lifestyle I have always provided, used the British courts in an opportunistic bid for financial gain.

‘It is wrong that the British legal system gave her and her lawyers the opportunity to do so.

‘I shall continue to defend all my rights in other jurisdictions, as will those responsible for the trust holding my family’s wealth. I believe other courts will act in a more reasonable and less partial manner than the British courts have done.’

But Mrs Akhmedova’s lawyers say that, apart from a few relatively low value trinkets, she has ‘to date received nothing’ from her former husband

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave awarded Mrs Akhmedov £453,675,152 from her ex-husband, believed to Britain’s biggest ever divorce payout in December 2016.

She was handed the contents of the couple’s former home – worth almost £2.5million – his £350,000 Aston Martin and the £90 million art collection.

Mr Akhmedov and a Panamanian company that held most of his assets were also ordered to shell out a £350 million lump sum.

But Hodge Malek QC, for Mrs Akhmedova, said she has ‘to date received nothing from the husband save for some de minimis assets in the UK.’

She had managed to lay her hands on ‘some sporting guns and a valuable motor car’ and her lawyers had ‘arrested’ his helicopter and plane.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave described Mr Akhmedov’s attempts to salt away his assets as ‘seriously iniquitous’.

‘He has displayed a cavalier attitude to these proceedings and a naked determination to hinder or prevent the enforcement of his ex-wife’s claim,’ he added.

In particular, he had ‘taken steps to hide’ the modern art hoard – then worth £90,581,865 – although it had been awarded to Mrs Akhmedova.

As part of the asset freezing process, the judge controversially ordered top solicitor, Anthony Kerman, to reveal the whereabouts of the art collection.

Under cross-examination, he had to disclose that the collection and other assets were held by ‘entities in Liechtenstein’.

At the Court of Appeal, Mr Kerman’s lawyers argued that forcing him to divulge the billionaire private affairs was fundamentally wrong.

The solicitor had been ‘ambushed’ into revealing privileged information given to him by a former client, argued his barrister, Phillip Shepherd QC.

And he was then ordered not to ‘tip off’ Mr Akhmedov and others about his ex-wife’s plans to freeze his assets worldwide.

But Sir James Munby, Britain’s most senior family judge, ruled that forcing Mr Kerman to divulge his ex-client’s dealings was ‘justified’.

He was no longer instructed by the billionaire in the divorce proceedings and was ‘the most obvious potential source of the needed information’.

Mr Akhmedova says he pays his former wife to ‘live like royalty’ and has given her the family home in Weybridge (above)

The tycoon’s vast fortune includes a sprawling estate in St Jean Cap Ferat, France

The gas and oil trader’s fortune is estimated to be worth £900million including this superyacht

It was also ‘hardly surprising’ that Mr Akhmedov was not notified of the bid to freeze his assets and that Mr Kerman was ordered not to tip him off about it.

It was ‘a very plain and obvious case’ in which it had been necessary to keep the oligarch in the dark.

And Mr Kerman had not in fact been forced to disclose any legal advice that he gave Mr Akhmedov or any instructions that he received from him.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave’s award to Mrs Akhmedova represented 41.5% of the ‘staggering’ family wealth.

During their marriage, the couple enjoyed a glitteringly lavish lifestyle, with a £39 million mansion in Surrey, as well as a £27.8 million holiday pad.

Mr Akhmedov, who bought a £300m super-yacht from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in 2014, split from the mother of his two children after 20 years of marriage.

The court heard that Mrs Akhmedova, 41, was just 17 when she met her ex, and 21 and pregnant when they married in 1993 and moved to England.

‘Mr Akhmedov had nothing like the wealth now enjoyed by him – substantively their wealth was made during the marriage,’ Mr Malek said.

The billionaire – who started out selling sable furs – made his fortune when he sold shares in Russian company, ZAO Northgas, in 2012 for $1.375 billion.

Since the marriage ended in 2014, Mr Malek claimed Mr Akhmedov had ’embarked on a deliberate campaign of trying to defeat the wife’s claims by any means possible.’

He had shifted almost all of his wealth offshore and ‘stripped cash’ out of Britain to stop his wife getting hold of it, added the QC.

Since the divorce, Mrs Akmedova’s lawyers have been trawling the globe in search of her ex-husband’s assets, and Sir James Munby’s ruling today delivered an important boost to their campaign.