By Lisa Barrington
DUBAI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Dubai's highest court has rejected
an appeal by the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire to seize a
£350 million ($460 million)superyacht in one of the world's
costliest divorce battles, a court ruling last week said.
The Dubai Court of Cassation rejected an appeal by Tatiana
Akhmedova, ex-wife of oil and gas billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov,
to seize the yacht as part of a 453 million pound divorce bill
imposed by London's High Court.
The vessel, the M.V. Luna, was built for Russian billionaire
Roman Abramovich before Akhmedov bought it in 2014. It has at
least nine decks, space for 50 crew, two helipads, a vast
swimming pool and a mini submarine.
The yacht is at the centre of one of the largest divorce
settlements in legal history. London's High Court in 2016
ordered Akhmedov to pay about 40% of his fortune to former wife
Akhmedova.
But Akhmedov failed to pay and the London court granted a
worldwide freezing order, under which the Luna was impounded in
Dubai in 2018.
This appeals process has ended in Dubai, but the battle for
control of the yacht continues in the Marshall Islands, whose
flag the ship sails under, and regarding the Liechtenstein
entity which owns the yacht, publicly available British and
Marshall Islands court documents show.
The Dubai Court of Cassation upheld a previous Dubai court
ruling that London's 453 million pound divorce bill payout is
unenforceable in Dubai, English and Arabic copies of the Aug. 13
Cassation ruling provided to Reuters by Akhmedov's spokesman
show.
The spokesman said the court upheld that the London ruling
is "contrary to Islamic sharia, United Arab Emirates personal
status law and public policy, and is therefore unenforceable in
Dubai".
Forbes has estimated Akhmedov's net worth around $1.4
billion. The U.S. Treasury Department has put him on a list of
sanctioned Russian state-owned companies and so-called
"oligarchs", identified as close to President Vladimir Putin.
Akhmedova is represented by London-listed litigation funder
Burford Capital. Burford declined to comment on the
development.
($1 = 0.7610 pounds)
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington
Additional reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Nick Macfie)