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The widow and daughters of a billionaire oligarch have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle with the deceased’s sister and brother-in-law over his $ 3 billion fortune, including a $ 200 million yacht and a $ 100 million villa in Monaco. .
Loudmila, 70, and Elena and Veronica, 36, are arguing in court over Oleg Bourlakov’s estate following the 72-year-old’s death in June.
Everything about the inheritance was going well until Loudmila learned that her husband was cheating on her with Sofia Shevtsova – who is 50 years younger and claims to have a son with her.
The couple had known each other when they were students and had been married for 47 years, but had started divorce proceedings three years ago.
Bourlakov’s original will had his widow and daughters as sole heirs, but after his death another copy came to light.
The later document, written in a notebook, named his sister Vera Kazakov and brother-in-law as heirs.
Already Ms. Bourlakov, Elena who lives in Canada, and financier Veronica who lives in London, but face the challengers in a court in Monaco.
The Kazakovs are also contesting the family’s claims in several London courts.
Mr. Bourlakov had made his fortune in post-Soviet Russia with the construction and energy industries. He was known by some as the “King of Cement”.
The former Air Force officer then sold his businesses in 2007 for more than $ 2 billion.
The mogul had escaped an assassination attempt in 2018 when he was shot at his car.
In 2010 he bought the Black Pearl superyacht, the 107-meter long ship the second largest in the world with sails.
The court is currently focusing on a series of meetings in London in 2018, where Ms Bourlakov says the ex-husband had drawn up a plan to hide his assets and exclude him from the properties.
Her lawyer Helen Davies said this was stated at a meeting between Vera Kazakov and the Bourlakov family in London in April 2018.
Davies said: “At the meeting, Mr Bourlakov, the Kazakovs and Bourlakov’s adviser admitted for the first time that the Bourlakov family’s businesses were part of a verbal agreement between Mr Bourlakov and Mr Kazakov, halving Bourlakov’s inheritance from 4 to about 2 billion ”.
In other meetings Bourlakov reportedly owed hundreds of millions of dollars in London, again reducing the family’s assets.
Bourlakov had previously wanted to leave his property to his wife in a 2004 will, but another was found after his death, lawyers said.
The handwritten document in a notebook specified that the Black Pearl yacht would go to the Kazakhs.
Ms Bourlakov and her two daughters say the document is false and are challenging it at the Monaco trial.
But in London the Kazakovs claim that Ms Bourlakov herself has used secret tactics to gain as much asset from the marriage as possible.
Their lawyer, James Willan, said: “Until his death, the Kazakhs claim that it was Bourlakova and her daughters Elena and Veronica, who extorted Bourlakov and the Kazakovs, pending the dissolution of the marriage.”
“They say that with a well-calculated strategy, he started divorce proceedings in Monaco, and Bourlakova took control of the multibillion-dollar assets.”
“Ms. Bourlakova has frozen these assets so that they could not be accessed by the Kazakhs before legal proceedings, even transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to Elena and Veronica as well as about $ 1.5 billion in offshore facilities – such as a group in the Bahamas known as ‘Golden Wheat Trust.’ ‘
The trial continues.
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