An oligarch’s ex-wife who scooped Britain’s greatest divorce settlement is suing her legal professionals, hoping for as much as £600million – greater than she was initially awarded.
Tatiana Soroka claims Fiona Shackleton’s agency, which secured her £453million victory towards her Russian husband in 2016, has let her down by failing to assist her seize her husband’s superyacht Luna.
Constructed for former Chelsea proprietor Roman Abramovich, the ten-deck floating palace is the world’s second-largest expedition yacht and has two helipads, a pool and mini submarine.
Papers lodged on the Excessive Court docket by Ms Soroka’s new legal professionals declare Baroness Shackleton’s agency, Payne Hicks Seashore, acted ‘negligently’ by not alerting legal professionals in Florida that Luna was moored in Miami and could possibly be seized to assist fulfil the settlement. However PHB insists Ms Soroka’s declare is misconceived and says it stays happy with the deal it secured for her.
Ms Soroka’s report £453million divorce payout was the most recent in a string of triumphs for Baroness Shackleton, nicknamed ‘Metal Magnolia’ for her ruthless pursuit of her shoppers’ pursuits.
Tatiana Soroka (proper, then often called Tatiana Akhmedova) claims Fiona Shackleton’s (left) agency let her down by failing to assist her seize her husband’s superyacht Luna
Farkhad Akhmedov (pictured) is the Russian billionaire on the centre of Britain’s greatest divorce case
MV Luna is a 377ft superyacht that was initially constructed for Roman Abramovich earlier than being purchased by Farkhad Akhmedov in 2014
She represented King Charles and Sir Paul McCartney of their divorces, memorably having a jug of water poured over her by a livid Heather Mills when the previous mannequin was awarded simply £24million of the £125million she had sought from the previous Beatle.
However in Ms Soroka’s case, issues soured after the settlement cash didn’t materialise from her ex-husband Farkhad Akhmedov, regardless of the oil and fuel tycoon being ordered to pay up by a choose. Ms Soroka, 51, instructed PHB to chase billionaire Mr Akhmedov, 68, for the cash.
Her authorized declare, lodged final month, states that she spoke to Baroness Shackleton and one other PHB solicitor on the cellphone in January 2017 and informed them that her ex was in Miami and so was his 377ft yacht.
She requested them to ‘discover choices in Miami’ for having the ‘extraordinarily priceless’ Luna seized, provided that its worth had been put at round £200million, the courtroom papers state.
In 2016 Ms Soroka secured an astounding £453million sum with the assistance of her formidable lawyer Fiona Shackleton (pictured)
The ten-deck floating palace is the world’s second-largest expedition yacht and has two helipads, a pool and mini submarine
The vessel options two helipads, an enormous swimming pool, and its personal mini submarine, together with 9 decks and house for 52 crew
However it’s alleged that whereas PHB did contact a Florida lawyer to hunt his recommendation, they ‘wrongly and negligently’ knowledgeable him ‘that Farkhad had no property within the USA, when in actual fact … the Luna was docked in Miami’.
PHB should have knowledgeable the US lawyer that ‘Farkhad due to this fact did have a (very priceless) asset within the USA’, the declare states. Ultimately, the yacht was capable of sail away with out being impounded.
Throughout her five-year quest to have her ex-husband’s property seized, Ms Soroka assembled groups of specialists together with former members of the Royal Navy’s elite Particular Boat Service. Then, in July 2021, the couple introduced they’d come to a brand new personal settlement, with Ms Soroka agreeing to take £100million in money and £50million in art work.
From that she needed to pay £74.6million to her monetary backers, Burford Capital, over the failed asset hunt. She is now claiming from PHB a sum ‘considerably in extra of £10million’.
Ms Soroka, 51, instructed PHB to chase billionaire Mr Akhmedov, 68, for the cash
Ms Soroka’s report £453million divorce payout was the most recent in a string of triumphs for Baroness Shackleton
Though the precise determine will not be specified, her declare states that if PHB had acted in a different way, there was a ‘very actual chance’ she would have acquired the ‘full sum due’ below the unique divorce settlement, or a big proportion of it, and ‘now claims from PHB damages representing the worth of that misplaced alternative’.
A calculation by the Mail based mostly on accessible figures suggests the utmost worth of this ‘misplaced alternative’ is £303million. Added to that the Burford £74.6million, and the curiosity she is claiming plus different prices, the overall she is hoping to recoup seems near £600million. Whether or not she would ever get that sum, or whether or not her declare is deemed to have benefit, stays to be seen. The case remains to be at an early stage and has not gone to trial.
A spokesman for PHB stated: ‘Payne Hicks Seashore stay happy with the end result we achieved for Ms Soroka together with the very vital award we obtained for her. A defence is being ready which is able to set out the idea upon which we take into account this declare to be legally and factually misconceived.’
It’s understood PHB additionally disputes Ms Soroka’s estimation of the sum she deserves. Ms Soroka declined to remark.
