New York -
A US oil baron faces losing half his £7.4 billion ($11.2bn) fortune in what could be the most expensive divorce in history.
Harold Hamm could break the £1.1billion record for a settlement, set by Rupert Murdoch, when he and his wife Sue Ann go their separate ways after 25 years together.
According to the law in Oklahoma, Mr Hamm may have to hand over half the wealth he accumulated running the petrol giant Continental Resources.
The company has been subpoenaed by a US court, along with four other companies owned by Mr Hamm.
The 67-year-old made his fortune as a leading force in the American oil boom and served as the senior energy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign.
Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world, while Forbes ranks him at 90 on its global wealth list.
Economist and lawyer Mrs Hamm, 56, has held key posts at Continental, which could play in her favour when the settlement comes to be drawn up, but she no longer works for the company.
The Hamms were married in April 1988 and have two adult children, Jane and Hilary. Mr Hamm has three children from a former marriage that ended in divorce in 1987.
In a court filing this month, Mrs Hamm alleges that her husband was having an affair, which prompted her to file for divorce.
The value of Continental Resources has rocketed during the couple’s marriage and, if there is no prenuptual agreement, Mrs Hamm could be entitled to a multi-billion-pound settlement.
Barbara Atwood, professor emeritus of family law at the University of Arizona, said: “I don’t know of anything that’s ever been this big. There’s just so much money involved.”
The youngest of a sharecropper’s 13 children, Mr Hamm spent his youth picking cotton, before starting his career at 20 by scrubbing the scum out of oil barrels. He worked his way up and was eventually able to drill his own wells.
Fond of eating at burger bars, he drives his own truck and is regarded as being down to earth. His big breakthrough came in the Nineties, when he helped discover the Bakken field of North Dakota, the largest new US oil prospect since the Sixties.
Among the assets to be divided up between the couple will be their four homes, including a £2 million mansion in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma.
The split could dwarf that of media tycoon Mr Murdoch, who was married to first wife Anna for 32 years before divorcing in 1998.
Other stratospheric settlements include the £660million paid by Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to ex-wife Slavica in 2009.
Daniel Jaffe, the Beverly Hills attorney who represented Anna Murdoch, said Mrs Hamm could ‘claim that a portion of her efforts went into making the company what it is today’. He added: “She was married to him when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking for a couple of billion dollars.”
Mr Hamm couldn’t be reached for comment, and an attorney for Mrs Hamm declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement governing the case.
Daily Mail