Michelle Young comments on ‘biggest divorce case in British legal history’
London, 21.04.11 — Speaking about her ongoing divorce case, dubbed by the press ‘the biggest in British legal history’, Michelle Young has released the following statement…
“After months of stagnation with other solicitors, Vardags turned my case around. With devastating effect, they obtained orders seizing my husband’s passport forcing him to engage in the proceedings and secured a six-month suspended prison sentence against him. I have the highest of praise for this firm for their ability to analyse extraordinarily complex financial information and to apply the law imaginatively and effectively. I remain extremely grateful to Ayesha Vardag and Emily Brand for their work on this case.”
A previous press release concerning this case was issued on 29.06.09 on behalf of Vardags (formerly, ‘Ayesha Vardag Solicitors’), which is accessible here.
Last year, Vardags won in the Supreme Court for the German heiress Katrin Radmacher in her landmark pre-nuptial victory, heard before nine Law Lords.
Please note: Vardags is unable to comment on this case, until the judgement has been handed down.
Some background to the Michelle Young case:
* In 2009, a High Court judge found Scot Young in contempt for failing to provide more information about his assets and gave him a suspended six-month jail sentence. He was also ordered to pay his wife £27,500 a month maintenance.
* In the continuing five-year divorce battle, Michelle Young claims her former husband has hidden millions offshore to avoid paying maintenance. Despite being ordered by a judge to pay his wife £27,500 a month, Mr Young, 49, has not paid her anything since 2009.
* Scot Young was due to be discharged from his bankruptcy earlier this month, but this was denied because of his “lack of co-operation”.
* Before their divorce, the court has heard, Scot owned a string of properties in Mayfair and Knightsbridge worth at least £32 million. He now claims that he “lost” all these assets and ended up with a balance of less than zero. One reason, he says, is that five years ago his wealth collapsed, primarily because Project Moscow, a £600 million retail development in Russia in which he had invested heavily, ‘imploded’.
* Michelle Young claims that her husband has £2bn in offshore accounts and tax havens and has used influential friends such as Kevin Cash, Sir Philip Green and Simon Cowell to help hide his money.
* Mr Young, who claims to be £28m in debt, says it is a coincidence that he lost his fortune at around the same time as their marriage collapsed in 2006.
* The couple met in London 20 years ago when Scot was a minor-league property developer. They had two daughters, Scarlet in 1992 and Sasha in 1994, before marrying in 1995 in Chelsea.
The following images are available for publication:
Ayesha Vardag
Emily Brand
Notes to Editors:
Ayesha Vardag graduated from Cambridge University with Honours in Law and from Brussels with a Master’s in European Law, working at the International Courts of Justice in the Hague and the UN(IAEA) in Vienna. She then trained and qualified as a finance lawyer at Linklaters London and Moscow on power station and diamond mine projects, before moving on to capital markets work at New York law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges. Ayesha was called to the Bar in 1999 and joined 4 New Square chambers, then crossed to family law at Sears Tooth. She founded Ayesha Vardag Solicitors in 2005.
