Ex-trader who made fortune on Russian energy ordered to pay ex-wife £453m

A former London oil and gas trader who built up a fortune in the Russian energy business has been ordered to pay his estranged wife £453 million by a divorce court judge.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave made the ruling on Thursday following a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

The judge has not named anyone involved in a ruling.

He said the man was 61 and came from the Caucasus and the woman was 44 and from eastern Europe.

The award could be the biggest made by a UK divorce court judge.

In late 2014, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, wife of financier Sir Chris Hohn, was awarded more than £330 million

Legal experts said the Cooper-Hohn award was ''certainly'' one of the biggest made in the UK.

But they said because family litigation was often conducted at private hearings, it was hard to be certain what a payout league table would look like.

Three years earlier, Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky featured in a multi-million pound divorce case. It was reported that his former wife Galinan Besharova had agreed to accept between £165 million and £220 million as part of a settlement.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said he had awarded the woman at the centre of the latest case 41.5% of the "total marital assets".

The judge said the pair had met in 1989 while the woman was studying in Moscow and married in Moscow in 1993.

He indicated they had two grown-up children.

The judge said they moved to London in 1993 and had lived together in Surrey.

He said both had been given indefinite leave to stay in the UK and the woman had become a British citizen more than 15 years ago.