A judge determined today that the ex-wife of Daily Telegraph magnate Sir Frederick Barclay has failed to establish that he is in contempt of court because he hasn’t paid her the tens of millions of pounds she is owed as a result of the dissolution of their marriage.
In her request for a judge’s jail sentence, Lady Hiroko Barclay claimed that her ex-husband was trying to avoid paying by “stringing things out” until “one of us dies.”
The High Court determined that he is not in contempt of court since his wife of 34 years had not been able to show that he could access the money purportedly stashed in an intricate web of offshore trusts.
The judge did, however, find that Sir Frederick had disobeyed rules regarding the payment of support and legal bills.
It happened after Lady Hiroko alleged that her former husband and Sir David, his twin brother, got into a fight at sea over control of their respective enterprises.
She said in her testimony at their divorce trial in London that Sir Frederick and his identical sibling got into an argument aboard a yacht.
The Barclay brothers were among the most well-known businesspeople in the UK.
They had financial ties to The Ritz hotel in London and Telegraph Media Group. Age 86, Sir David passed away in January of last year.
According to Lady Hiroko, Sir Frederick and his brother David spent £2.3 million for the freehold of Brecqhou, one of the Channel Islands, in 1993.
She also said that her ex-husband and his brother once got into a fight while they were both away from home over how their businesses were being conducted.
She informed the judge, “There was a brawl on a boat on the holiday, and they were punching each other.”
It is unknown if the claimed brawl took place on board the Leander G superyacht, which the brothers are said to have purchased in or around 2016.
She also revealed that Sir Frederick had the money to pay but was planning to “stretch things out” until “one of us dies,” according to Sir Jonathan Cohen, who started preside over a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Monday.
Sir Frederick contests her assertions.
Sir Frederick had “the means to pay,” according to Lady Barclay, who added: “For him to say otherwise is untrue.”
In a written witness statement, she stated that Sir Jonathan “has no respect for me or the court.”
His sole goal is to drag things out while hiding behind a web of intricate structures, which were originally created to avoid paying taxes, so that our daughter Amanda may take care of all of his financial requirements until one of us passes away.
Additionally, the family has ties to Monaco and the Channel Islands.
After watching their financial dispute, Sir Jonathan decided that Sir Frederick should pay Lady Barclay payments totaling £100 million.
The judge criticised Sir Frederick, calling his conduct “reprehensible.”
He claimed that the businessman had disobeyed orders when he sold a luxurious yacht and “used the equity for his personal purposes.”
According to the judge, Lady Barclay wanted £120 million, but Sir Frederick’s offer may have left her with nothing.
While Sir Frederick claimed to have been kicked out of a “palatial” central London home because he couldn’t pay the mortgage, according to Lady Barclay’s witness statement, he had continued to live there for a number of months “seemingly undisturbed, with access to his ballroom and purpose-built oxygen chamber and attended by his housekeeper, security guard, and driver.”
Sir Frederick has been evicted, according to his attorneys.
Lady Barclay reacted to Frederick’s inability to pay the divorce settlement money by saying, “Frederick says he cannot pay. He claims he is cashless. I don’t think he’s real.
He is not unable to pay; rather, he is unwilling to do so. He’s never had any desire to do it.
He has no respect for me or the Court, she continued. His only goal is to drag things out while hiding behind a web of intricate structures, which were originally created to avoid paying taxes, so that our daughter Amanda may take care of all of his financial requirements until one of us passes away.
If Frederick passes away before I receive my first lump sum, my monthly maintenance will end, she continued.
After a relationship/marriage of nearly fifty years, where our level of living was beyond expensive, I will be left practically bankrupt and almost certainly homeless.
Additionally, Lady Barclay states that Sir Frederick’s daughter Amanda has taken on the role of his “de facto banker” and is in control of all financial and business concerns that he professes to be ignorant of.
Sir Frederick was previously criticised by Judge Sir Jonathan Cohen for acting in a “reprehensible” manner.
In a previous decision, he stated that the businessman had violated the court’s directives when he sold a luxury yacht and “used the equity for his personal use.”
The process of being committed goes on.