“This matter first came before the court in, I believe, late 2007. Since then there have been approximately 50 court orders made. The demands that this dispute has made of the family justice system has been prodigious and disproportionate”
“I have come to the clear conclusion that, as regards his obligations to maintain his wife and his children, the husband is actuated by extreme malice towards the wife. He has the means to pay but he refuses to do so.”
“It is submitted there is ample evidence upon which the Court may properly conclude that the respondent has is a very wealthy man indeed. It is impossible to assess his wealth accurately because he has chosen to hide the truth. The logical inference to be drawn is that chooses to do this because he is, as the applicant claims, a very wealthy man. In all the circumstances it is submitted an estimate of his worth as at least£100,000,000 , would not be unreasonable on the evidence available.”
“I have not worked since 1998. Having earned approximately US$10m by that time I stopped working as I wanted to devote all my time to my children.”
“As previously stated in this affidavit, my financial situation deteriorated rapidly in 2007. I do not dispute that when I came to England I was a man of significant means.”
“As earlier in my life I was a successful businessman, I retired in 1998. Since 1998 I have no office and was a passive investor in a few companies. But in 2007 my investments became practically zero due to the actions of Russian Government and wrong business decisions.”
“Mrs Kremen-Agrest is able to demonstrate that she owns personal net assets of a value exceeding the sum of£2 million in the form of Whitecliff, Horseshoe Ridge, St George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey a property, which was purchased in September 1999 for£2,100,000 which has been recently valued at£3,250,000 and which is held in her sole name. We are instructed that there are no outstanding charges or liabilities in respect of the property. The funds used to purchase this property were derived from her husband’s varied entrepreneurial activities which is confirmed in the letter enclosed from Banque Safdie, Mr Agrest’s Swiss bankers since 1994. In particular, Mr Agrest began his career in 1982as an engineer at the Rosgiprovodhoz Institute. In 1984 he commenced work for the Moscow Management Office of “Circus on the Stage” as head of the staging section. He was very successful in this post and by 1986 was promoted to the position of Director of Special Events of the Roskontsert Festival Department. In 1987, when private concerts were permitted in the USSR, he became the Director of the Nautilus Pompilius Group - the most popular group in the USSR at that time. In approximately 1988, we are instructed that Mr Agrest established a Co-operative in Kazakhstan which was to concentrate on the production of promotional merchandise for the stars on the Soviet stage at that time, having previously obtained exclusive rights to trade such merchandise at their performances. In 1989, in partnership with others, Mr Agrest established a company called “Red Line Moscow”
“Decisions about necessity or business trips are made solely by the company management on the basis of economic expediency. I would like to state that Boris Agrest's business trips are highly effective. Typically 20% of negotiations result in making deals. Boris Agrest's performance is about 90%. Specifically, his business trip to Mauritius resulted in joining a large electric grid company as a founding shareholder, while his business trips to India and Austria resulted in signing profitable contracts with Russian and Norwegian fishing companies. Boris Agrest's trips generate considerable profit for our company, far exceeding their costs. We are going to continue sending Boris Agrest on these business trips that we regard as expedient.” iii) In my judgment of3 December 2010 I referred in para 14, 17(iv), 22 and 24 how Jolima was used to enter into tenancy agreements of South Lodge on and after27 March 2008 . iv) In that same judgment at para 25 I described how on1 March 2009 GC entered into an agreement with Jolima whereby Jolima agreed to act as his agent/consultant in the sale of an ailing Kyrgyzstani bank owned by GC called Akylinvest Bank. v) In the EFG memo dated13 May 2010 referred to in para 10 of my judgment of16 April 2010 H is described as having investments in Los Angeles and in Russian Banks and described the nature of his business as “energy/investments”
“Hereby I confirm that Mr Boris Agrest since15th May 2010 no longer works as a Representative of Jolima Holdings Ltd. Jolima Holdings Ltd wishes great success in Mr Agrest career and personal life”
“On6 June 2007 contracts were exchanged in relation to South Lodge with H named as purchaser. The purchase money derived from off-shore entities called Garry Trading Inc, Gratex Finance Ltd and Tricommerce SA. On1 August 2007 South Lodge was transferred into the name of Everclear Ltd as H had earlier assigned the benefit of his contract to buy South Lodge to Everclear upon completion. Thus Everclear was the nominee H decided to use at the time of purchase.”
“He says that although he has been very rich his business activities have suffered greatly. He told me that his first fortune was made by operating some 250 gaming machines which 10 years ago were bringing him in the enormous sum of£40,000 a month. The second fortune was by the provision of snack machines in over 2000 Moscow schools. But he says changes in legislation have brought both those businesses to an end. I have seen no documents about the businesses, their profitability or their demise and I cannot form a view about it. He says that he is now worth nothing and that all his money has gone.”
“Our research identified that Makensa Holdings limited was found to be part of the Starpoint Group of Companies. This is a specific network of associated companies involved in the Financial Services sector. Starpoint Trading is a commercial vehicle created to introduce and allow Cypriot and Russian registered businesses to do work with each other. The following information has been obtained on Starpoint Trading: Starpoint Trading - Part of the Starpoint Group and Starpoint International Network. This company has three main offices located in North America (New York) Contact details being E-mail: nyWistarpoinLhk, Europe (Moscow) The International Center for Logistics BFG-Trans Grant, 25212 Moscow, Russia and China (Hong Kong) Starpoint Trading Limited, Dina House, Ruttonjee Central, 11 Duddell Street, Hong Kong - CEO gp@starpoint.hk. There were over 40 separate businesses making up the Starpoint Group from Russia alone, anyone of which could have further connections to the subject of enquiry.”
“Ms Kremen in her court bundle made a claim without any proof that I have control of assets worth 100 min GBP. Relying on support of Mr Mostyn, she made such claims now not only without any proof but clearly contradicts her own signed documents which she submitted to the Home Office, UBS, EFG Banks and where she claimed my total wealth was 10 min. GBP. I categorically deny any ownership over the companies mentioned by Ms Kremen. As she makes such claims without any proof and to stop wasting the Court time I am ready to sign documents re transfer of ownership of LUKOIL, Petrocommerce Bank, Deutsche Bank Ukraine, Makensa, Kendastar, Hallmark etc to Ms Kremen as well as BP, Sheil, GAZPROM, Dresdner Bank etc ”
“ I do not accept Mr Mostyn’s submission that the materials I have seen justify the inference that the husband’s wealth amounts to the$200 million which the wife believes it to be. I am not saying that it does not. All I am saying is that the materials I have seen do not properly justify an inferential finding that it does. But Mr Mostyn does not have to go that far. The inference which in my judgment I can properly draw, and which I do draw, is that the full extent of the husband’s present wealth is such as will very comfortably justify on a White v White basis the kind of award which the wife is seeking. If a figure needs to be put to it I would draw the inference, and do, that the full extent of the family assets (that is the assets of both the wife and the husband) is very comfortably in excess of£50 million and probably significantly more than that figure. Reference to White v White and the size of the wife’s claim apart there is, I accept, no process of purely mathematical calculation that can be prayed in aid to arrive at or justify such a figure. But there is one valuable cross-check which can be deployed. I ask myself this question: bearing in mind (i) my findings as to the continuing scale of the husband’s business activities and (ii) the evidence, summarised in paras [63]–[67] above, as to the size of the commissions the husband can be shown to have been capable of earning, is it reasonable or unreasonable to conclude that the husband over a period of some 20 years was able to amass a fortune of this size? Far from being unreasonable, such a conclusion is in my judgment entirely reasonable. ”
“ It is quite clear from the wife’s evidence, which I accept, that she and the husband enjoyed a very high standard of living, just as it is quite obvious that the husband, whatever his origins, is now a man of significant wealth. But the picture must be kept within the bounds of reality. Whatever the wife’s belief – and I neither dispute the honesty of her belief nor dispute that it may be correct – the evidence before me does nothing to support her case that the husband’s wealth is to be measured in hundreds of millions. Their lifestyle was undoubtedly grand, but it was not marked with the opulence or extravagance one might have expected if the husband was really worth what she says, nor is she able to point to tangible assets remotely approaching in value what she says he is worth. It may be that there are hundreds of millions invested in intangibles – I am certainly not finding that there are not – but the picture I have does not suggest it. Theirs was not, for example, a lifestyle characterised by yachts and private jets, nor is there anything to suggest that the husband ever engaged in the kind of expensive hobbies and pastimes one often associates with the mega – or even the very – rich”
“In February 2001, Mrs Janna Agrest turned to me with a request to draw up an agreement of Marital Separation (hereinafter: "the Agreement") and children education, to the case if she will decide to separate from her husband and live apart. Mrs Janna Agrest asked me to represent her, and draw such an agreement, that in a case of their separation, it will guarantee her material situation, and she herself stated me her demands about dividing the mutual property. Mr Boris Agrest agreed to all her demands, mentioned that he does not planning a separation or divorce, and signed the Agreement.”
“The husband was due to pay the money back by31st December 2007 with interest. He has not paid any of it back, save for£10,000 . He says he cannot pay it back. It has all gone. So the wife finds herself having handed over the property, which is very valuable, and lost virtually every penny of the million dollars that she was due to receive. The husband shrugs his shoulders and says: well, I have lost much more than that over the last year or so. She is bound, he says, by the 2001 Israeli agreement. She made a bad investment when she lent it to me. Too bad. She is stuck with it. That, to me, is at least at first sight a deeply unappealing argument.”
“Although the wife seeks to say that it was the husband's idea to seek the 2001 agreement following a violent attack by him upon her (see B4) that is not supported by Mrs Damsky's account to which I have already referred. Mrs Damsky says it was the wife who approached her and the husband went along with the terms and, of course, the 2001 agreement was approved by the Israeli Court and incorporated into the 2003 divorce. I am not in the least persuaded that the documents were in Hebrew or that the wife did not understand them or the divorce proceedings at the time. I do not believe for one minute that the wife did not know until the spring of 2007 that the parties had been divorced in Israel in 2003.”
“14. On13th August 2003 in the presence of both parties the marriage was dissolved in Israel. There are several bizarre aspects about this. The wife says that she did not know that the marriage had been dissolved and Judge Hughes did not believe her on this. But before the judge there was not the document which appears in my bundle at 2:53, a document which the husband might have claimed privilege about but was happy for me to see, which shows that he consulted solicitors in 2007 about proposed divorce proceedings, and they had trouble finding out where the marriage certificate was, but the note says that he confirmed there is one in the safe. The solicitors were asking subsequently whether he had found out whether there had been proceedings in Israel and he said that he had not yet found out. So it appears that he was uncertain as to whether or not there had been a divorce. 15. Even stranger than that, the parties have lived together as man and wife at all times, both before the agreement and its registration in 2001, and the divorce in 2003. Indeed, in August 2003 the mother was pregnant with Maxim, although it is not clear that she knew that she was at that time. The purpose of the divorce is completely lost on me. Indeed the husband said to me he did not really know what the purpose of it was either. He thought it was some sort of parlour game that she was playing, while she said that she was unaware of it happening at all. They went together from their jointly occupied home to court and back again and continued as if nothing had ever happened. No steps whatsoever were taken to implement the agreement of May 2001.”
“… it is an inescapable conclusion that the husband has the capacity to be very aggressive indeed and to dominate the wife. On that point I accept the evidence of the wife that he was on his best behaviour in Court and I accept the evidence of the housekeeper and driver that he was very aggressive towards the wife at home and frequently denigrated her, that he was the boss and what he said happened irrespective of the wishes of the wife or others in the household.”
“While it is perfectly true that this court has to take into account any liabilities that a party to the marriage may have, it does not seem to me right that the court, exercising this particular jurisdiction, should necessarily prefer the claims of the creditors to those of the wife and children, and the order, which the registrar made and the judge affirmed, which requires a sale of the house and therefore the forced move of the home and the family, seems to me to result in a preference being given to the creditors over the claims of the wife and the children”
“…although I accept that in proceedings for ancillary relief a court will strive to quantify its award to a wife upon a basis which will enable the husband to meet all his liabilities as well, of course, as to maintain himself, it by no means follows, particularly where money is in short supply, that, whether in the context of capital or in that of income provision, the interests of the husband’s other creditors always take precedence over those of the wife...”