Meet the Man on the Hook for a $4.5 BILLION Divorce Settlement

A judge has ordered Russian potash-mining tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev to pay $4.5 billion (4,020,555,987.80 Swiss francs, to be precise) to his ex-wife. The lady also gets millions worth of property in Gstaad and Geneva.

Give that man a trophy, because he just preemptively won the great game of humble-bragging.

The AP reports that the couple’s divorce has been in the works since 2008. Forbes estimates Rybolovleva’s fortune at $8.8 billion and ranks him #148 among the world’s wealthiest. He’s part owner of soccer club AS Monaco and is apparently known as the “fertilizer king.” Dude’s probably good for it, is my point.

Elena Rybolovleva’s lawyer calls the settlement “the most expensive divorce in history.” I don’t have the stats in front of me, but it’s got to rank somewhere in the top five. Now, the appeals process does pretty much guarantee that amount will be whittled down, according to Mr. Rybolovleva’s lawyer: “There will definitely be a new appellate review and therefore this judgment is not final given the existence of two levels of appeal in Switzerland.”

But it seems safe to say that his ex-wife is starting from a strong negotiating position.