WASHINGTON, August 8 (RIA Novosti) ¬– An estranged wife has opened a new front in a bitter divorce battle with her Russian billionaire husband in a Hawaiian court, claiming he has diverted millions of dollars into US property in violation of a court order freezing his assets, Courthouse News Service has reported.
Elena Rybolovleva sued her husband Dmitri Rybolovlev, the former owner of Russian fertilizer firm Uralkali, in Oahu First Circuit Court. She also sued Kapha North Shore LLC, which she claims is a shell company her husband used to buy a $20 million property on the island of Kauai from Hollywood stars Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith.
In the suit Rybolovleva claims that she started divorce proceedings in 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland, where she resides, and won a court order freezing her husband’s assets in 2010, Court News Service reported Wednesday.
Since then she claims her husband has been putting his assets into property to avoid paying a settlement. These properties include a $95 million home purchased from US tycoon Donald Trump; a $300 million penthouse in Monaco; and an $88 million penthouse in Central Park West. Rybolovleva also claims that her husband has used the couple’s eldest daughter as a “straw person” to acquire properties.
None of the sellers is a party to the complaint.
The feuding couple met on their first day of college in Perm, Siberia and Rybolovleva was by her husband’s side while he built his fortune, even standing by her man during an 11 month stint he spent in jail when accused of murdering a business rival, the Daily Mail reported Thursday. She initiated the divorce when his serial adultery became too much to bear.
In the suit Rybolovleva asserts that her husband is the world’s 100th richest man. In fact, he is slipping- as of March 2013 Forbes puts him at # 119 in world with a fortune of $9.1 billion.
