NIGERIAN OIL TYCOON, MICHAEL PREST LOOSES DIVORCE BATTLE TO WIFE

Oh mama! some sister just hit the jack pot, now this is what i call #Shebang! wow!

MICHAEL PREST, TOP NIGERIAN OIL TYCOON

Nigerian Michael Prest has lost a legal battle with his estranged English wife Yasmin over a £17.5m divorce settlement.

YASMIN PREST, NOW DIVORCED FROM HUSBAND, NIGERIAN OIL TYCOON, MICHAEL PREST

The Supreme Court judgement marks the latest round of a lengthy legal cash dispute between the couple over the oil tycoon's fortune.

In October, the Court of Appeal ruled that a High Court judge had earlier wrongly ordered Mr Prest to transfer properties, worth millions of pounds and held in the names of companies he controlled, to Mrs Prest.

She then asked the Supreme Court - the highest court in the UK - to assess the case, where seven judges on Tuesday unanimously allowed Mrs Prest's appeal.

They concluded that properties held by Mr Prest's companies were properties to which he was "entitled".

Mr Prest, founder of Nigerian energy company Petrodel Resources, claimed to be worth about £48m.

But Mrs Prest said he was worth much more than than that - "tens if not hundreds of millions" of pounds.

She said after the decision: "I'm delighted and relieved that the Supreme Court has ruled as it did.

A VERY HAPPY MRS. YASMIN PREST, WHO WOULDN'T BE.

"I'm grateful to the judges for the care and thought they gave the case.

"It is more a case of satisfaction and relief than celebration.

"None of this would have been necessary if Michael had been sensible and played fair."

Judges heard the couple - in their early 50s - married in 1993, spent most of their time in London, had properties in Nigeria and the Caribbean and lived to a "very high standard".

One justice, Lord Sumption, said it was not possible to give "general guidance".

"Whether assets legally vested in a company are beneficially owned by its controller is a high fact-specific issue," he said.

He said judges were sometimes entitled to ask whether "terms" were really what they were said to be or "simply a sham".

Lawyers said the new ruling could have significant implications for divorcing couples.

The challenge concerned the position of a number of companies belonging to the Petrodel Group which are "wholly owned and controlled" by Mr Prest.

One of the companies is the legal owner of five residential properties in the UK and another is the legal owner of two more.

The question the Supreme Court had to tackle was whether the court had power to order the transfer of the seven properties to Mrs Prest, given that they legally belonged to his companies, not him.

A VERY SAD MIKE, AWW, DON'T WORRY, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.

Allowing Mrs Prest's appeal, the court declared that the seven disputed properties vested in the companies were ones that Mr Preset was "entitled, either in possession or in reversion".

Mr Prest was not in court to hear the judgement being delivered.

Bamidele V. Osagie