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| Yasmin (Left) Michael Prest (Right) |
An oil tycoon who used Nigerian Itsekiri customary law to attempt to strip his ex-wife of a £17.5million divorce payout has won a landmark case to slash the money by £9million.
Multi-millionaire Michael Prest, 50, one of Britain's most successful black businessman, originally claimed under 'native' Nigerian law his oil company didn't belong to him.
And despite being slammed for his 'ingenious and dishonest' attempts to conceal his huge wealth from the divorce courts, he has won his marathon legal fight.
One of the country's top family judges said that 'there were almost no lengths to which he was not prepared to go' in his fight to cut down his 49-year-old ex-wife Yasmin's divorce settlement.
Although she insisted he was worth 'tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds' and asked for an award of £30.4 million, he was adamant he was worse than penniless, with net debts of £48 million, and said his ex was entitled to only just over £2 million.
After a marathon dispute that ran up 'astronomical' legal costs of more than £3 million - and during which Mr Prest 'repeatedly flouted' his duty to fully and frankly disclose his assets - he was last year ordered to give his ex-wife money and assets worth £17.5 million.
However, in a ruling today [Oct. 26] that award was cut by up to £9 million by the Court of Appeal.
