Luxurious LifeStyle – Temur Akhmedov is owed £453m by her ex-husband however has acquired solely £5m and a rusty helicopter

Because the son of a Russian oligarch, the very last thing Temur Akhmedov expects is sympathy. 

When others his age may solely dream of a toe on the property ladder, British-born Temur was given a £30 million condominium in Central London on the age of 19.

For so long as he can keep in mind, his life has been one in all luxurious. Nonetheless, solely the toughest hearts can be left unstirred by his present predicament. 

This week Temur, 27, faces a deeply painful showdown along with his mom, Tatiana Akhmedova, on the Royal Courts of Justice. 

It guarantees to be probably the most dramatic chapter but in Britain’s costliest divorce case.

Believing Temur assisted his father in hiding property worth hundreds of thousands, Ms Akhmedova, 52, is bringing a authorized motion towards her first-born son. 

She is because of give proof tomorrow in the beginning of a three-week listening to and has already sought orders freezing his property.

Earlier this month she obtained a Excessive Court docket order that allowed a nine-strong staff to go looking Temur’s flat for proof.

‘Think about being sued by your personal mom,’ Temur tells The Mail on Sunday in his first interview.

‘It’s horrible and will by no means have come to this. I’ve carried out nothing incorrect. My mom informed me, ‘I gave beginning to you so you need to be on my aspect’.

‘However I stated, ‘I am sorry, loyalty is not dictated by who gave beginning to you’. I did not search to take sides, to choose one mother or father over the opposite. 

‘I informed her I wished to be on the aspect of what’s proper. After which I requested her why, since she gave beginning to me, she is placing me via this.’

Temur says that for years he acted as peacemaker between his warring mother and father.

‘I attempted to deliver them collectively nevertheless it did not work,’ he says. His father, Farkhad Akhmedov, is a billionaire oil and gasoline tycoon and 17 years his ex-wife’s senior.

When reconciliation proved unattainable and the wedding lastly foundered, Temur hoped not less than for an amicable parting and even visited his mom’s high-powered lawyer to attempt to head off a damaging courtroom battle. 

He says: ‘I turned up unannounced and she or he [the lawyer] checked out me with a dying stare as if to say, ‘What are you doing right here’.

‘I informed her straight, ‘Do not break up my household, that is going to be unhealthy for my household’, nevertheless it did not do any good.’ The authorized juggernaut could not be halted.

Then, 4 years in the past, Ms Akhmedova was awarded £453 million by a Excessive Court docket decide. It was Britain’s largest divorce settlement, however in no way the tip of the dispute.

The litigation – and rancour – continued with subsidiary lawsuits in one other 5 international locations. 

Along with half of Mr Akhmedov’s billion-pound fortune, property at stake embody a personal jet, an Aston Martin, Holland & Holland shotguns and a £115 million artwork assortment that includes work by Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst.

However the jewel within the crown for either side is the Luna, a £350 million superyacht that used to belong to Chelsea proprietor Roman Abramovich and boasts an onboard spa, two heliports, a mini-submarine and a missile detection system.

Though Mr Akhmedov is claimed to have supplied his spouse £100 million to settle, she held agency. To this point she has acquired £5 million and a rusting helicopter.

Temur, a commodities futures dealer within the Metropolis, says when he spoke to his mom concerning the £100 million provide she appeared receptive, however cooled after a number of days when, Temur assumes, her legal professionals informed her they might get a greater deal. He says the cash concerned is ‘obscene’ and provides of his mom: ‘Does she want one million purses?’

They final met in February when she visited him at his condominium. Once more, he pleaded along with her to cease the litigation however says she refused.

Now, he says, all hope of a rapprochement has evaporated. ‘No, it is completed. How are you going to have a relationship with somebody who desires to offer you up like that?

‘I’ve no relationship along with her any extra, the divorce broke all the pieces.’

Legal professionals, in fact, are at all times those to profit from protracted divorce instances. However on this dispute, there may be one other get together with a vested curiosity.

Ms Akhmedova is backed by Burford Capital, a litigation finance agency that may take a slice of her payout if it succeeds in recovering the £453 million.

‘She’s underneath their management,’ claims Temur, described by his mom as his father’s ‘lieutenant’.

‘I believe she would have agreed to the £100 million if it wasn’t for them [Burford]. She as soon as informed me that her arms had been tied as a result of it had gone too deep.’

Burford, which grew to become concerned within the case in 2018, declined to remark final evening. 

Sources near the corporate insisted it does not management any litigation it funds and stated the choice to sue Temur was a matter for Ms Akhmedova and her authorized advisers.

Whereas the litigation continues, Burford has been bankrolling her luxurious way of life, giving her almost £15 million in 2018 to cowl residing bills. 

Temur says be believes his mom’s staff goes after him as a result of ‘I’m perceived because the weakest hyperlink’.

His condominium at One Hyde Park – Britain’s most costly block of flats – was purchased for him by his father in 2012 and he scoffs on the notion that it was merely one other train in placing property past his mom’s attain. 

‘How can she suppose that? She even helped with the design,’ he says.

‘And it is in my identify just some miles from the courtroom.’ His father additionally purchased a property for his youthful son and gave each boys giant sums of cash.

Temur says: ‘My father was simply being an excellent dad, taking care of his kids. He wished to verify we had been settled and secure. 

‘I do not wish to sound spoilt or something nevertheless it’s like when folks give their kids a few grand for his or her birthday or no matter.

‘It is some huge cash. However in our world you give somebody one million and an condominium – it is the identical thought simply totally different quantities.

‘This can be a wealthy household, the numbers are totally different. As a lot because it sounds loopy, that is our world. 

‘That is simply the best way it’s. If my dad wished to cover cash from her why would he purchase me an condominium in London? It is bananas. She [his mother] knew all about it, simply as she knew concerning the switch of cash.’

In courtroom his father has been accused of ‘bare dedication’ to maintain his fortune out of the attain of his former spouse. And two years in the past a decide condemned his ‘cavalier angle’ to the English courts.

What goes to the center of the tycoon’s cussed refusal to conform is his perception that ‘the British courts ought to by no means have sought to intrude in a former marriage which befell in Russia, between two Russian residents and which had lengthy been dissolved in that nation with beneficiant provision for my ex-wife’.

However legal professionals for Ms Akhmedova say it’s a matter of public report that the Excessive Court docket discovered paperwork relied on by her ex-husband to assist his claims that the couple had been really divorced in Russia in 2000 had been ‘in any respect materials occasions, cast’.

Ms Akhmedova was 17 when she met her husband, then 34, they usually married 4 years later in 1993, shifting to London later that 12 months.

The couple owned a £39 million mansion in Surrey and one other £28 million house earlier than they lastly separated. Temur and his brother had been educated in Surrey.

In 2012, Mr Akhmedov offered his stake in a gasoline firm for round £1 billion. Ms Akhmedova claimed the majority of his fortune was earned whereas they had been married.

Her former husband maintained that he made beneficiant provision, giving Tatiana tens of hundreds of thousands worth of houses in Britain and the French Riviera, in addition to hundreds of thousands of kilos in annual assist, vehicles and servants.

Within the authentic 2016 divorce ruling, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave stated Ms Akhmedova deserved the large payout due to her ‘equal contributions to the welfare of the household’. 

Two years later, the decide dominated that the oligarch was in contempt of courtroom as a result of he had not paid.

Ms Akhmedova has tried to drive her former husband at hand over his superyacht, moored in Dubai, however an area courtroom prevented her seizing it.

Then she accused Temur of conspiring along with his father to frustrate the enforcement of the award, accusations he disputes.

However he has some severe inquiries to reply when he takes the witness stand subsequent week.

In a ruling from earlier this month, Mrs Justice Knowles stated she ordered the search of Temur’s condominium as a result of he had not ‘delivered up’ digital gadgets that may include proof related to the dispute.

The decide stated she was ‘glad that there’s clear proof that Temur has in his possession incriminating paperwork’ and that there was ‘an actual risk’ he would destroy them if the flat had not been searched.

Legal professionals and forensic consultants for his mom spent ten hours looking the flat. Temur says: ‘They took away eight PlayStations belonging to my mates who had been spherical throughout quarantine.

‘Additionally they took a Peppa Pig recreation belonging to my four-year-old daughter and a few jazz CDs.

‘Then there was an previous laptop computer. All of the stuff they recovered from it dated again to my faculty and college days.

‘This was an invasion of my privateness and rights. Criminals have higher safety. I’ve nothing to cover. Nothing incriminating. And I by no means destroyed proof.’

Extra wistfully, he provides: ‘She [his mother] could possibly be residing with us having enjoyable and having fun with life, however she is an sad lady.’