Russian oligarch with secret second family is ordered to pay £100million to his ex-wife
A Russian oligarch with a secret second family has been ordered to give his ex-wife £100 million in cash and a house.
Mikhail Kroupeev, a naturalized British citizen, married Elena Kroupeeva in Russia in 1988 and they moved to England in 1993.
But their marriage fell apart in 2023 when Ms. Kroupeeva discovered that her husband had another wife and child in Russia. The child was born around 2008.
The couple, who has two children, has been having disagreements on financial matters since 2024 and the divorce case is ongoing.
In June last year, a court heard that Mr Kroupeev’s business empire included a company ‘with a contract to export oil from Syria… worth $1.5-2 billion’ and a firm that exported oil and gas to Kazakhstan.
He refused to allow himself to be evaluated and was sentenced to 28 days in jail for contempt of court.
At a four-day High Court hearing in February, Ms Kroupeeva’s lawyers asked the judge to award her her former matrimonial home, a seven-bedroom property in St John’s Wood, London, worth around £14.4 million, properties in Russia and Portugal worth a total of £26 million, and a lump sum totaling £32.1 million.
Representing himself via video, Mr Kroupeev argued that although the properties could be transferred he should only pay £300,000.
High Court Deputy Judge James Ewins KC ordered Mr Kroupeev to pay his wife £60 million and transfer to her properties in London, Portugal and Russia.
The court heard Mr Kroupeev’s business empire included a company with a ‘contract to export oil from Syria worth $1.5-2 billion’.
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In a judgment published yesterday, Judge James Ewins KC ordered Mr Kroupeev to pay £60 million and hand over three properties.
In his ruling, Judge Ewins said Mr Kroupeev’s involvement in the case had been ‘significantly tainted by his continued breaches of various court orders’ which continued during the hearing in February.
The judge said that during their 35-year marriage the couple had ‘enjoyed an extraordinarily high standard of living’, including living in St John’s Wood with their two children and properties in Portugal, Turkey and Russia.
The family took several vacations by private jet; these include Ms Kroupeeva’s twice-a-year shopping trips to Milan and Mr Kroupeev’s annual Christmas trip to Mustique in a £200,000 villa where he has collections of wine, watches and weapons.
Judge Ewins also said Ms Kroupeeva claimed that although she had previously had access to around £40,000 a month, this was ‘terminated’ in late 2024 following the breakdown of the marriage.
Mr Kroupeev claimed he had ‘limited liquid funds’ but the judge said the businessman spent more than £523,000 on his American Express credit card between October 2024 and September 2025, paying for his ‘second family”s education costs.
The judge continued that Ms Kroupeeva’s evidence was ‘consistent and consistent’ but said that Mr Kroupeev’s evidence was ‘extremely inadequate and lacking in credibility’.
He said: ‘The apologies he repeatedly made during his oral evidence, although reasonable on the surface, appeared hollow when considered in the context of his repeated and ongoing contempt of the court.’
The judge said the £100.6 million worth of assets transferred to Ms Kroupeeva were ‘affordable’ for Mr Kroupeev, adding that it ‘required him to convert some of his existing financial resources into cash’.
In a statement distributed by law firm Payne Hicks Beach, Ms Kroupeeva said she was ‘pleased’ with the decision after a ‘disturbing period of mistrust’.
