Ex-wife of tycoon 'hasn't paid her a PENNY of their £5.8m divorce'
EXCLUSIVE – ‘He’s not afraid of prison and I’ve run out of money to fight him’: Ex-wife of Texan tycoon who faces jail if he comes to UK says he hasn’t paid her a PENNY of their £5.8m divorce
- Preston Haskell IV, 55, embroiled in five-year battle with mother of his children
- Belarusian model Alesia Vladimirovna, 40, split with her husband Haskell in 2014
- Ms Vladimirovna accused him of serial infidelity and cocaine and alcohol abuse
- She was awarded a £5.8million divorce payout in 2016 but he has failed to pay
- Haskell has been sentenced at the High Court to six weeks in jail in his absence
The former wife of a millionaire tycoon who faces a six-week jail sentence after failing to pay her maintenance from their £5.8 million divorce battle says she hasn’t received a penny from him since their acrimonious split.
Preston Haskell, a Texan and the son of a construction mogul of the same name, is embroiled in a five-year divorce row with the model Alesia Vladimirovna Haskell, which has reached the Court of Appeal in London.
Judges heard that the son who hosted parties for Elton John, Madonna and Cheryl Cole had himself amassed a fortune in property, restaurants and international business, and in 2013 was linked with a bid to buy Coventry City Football Club.
Mr Haskell was ordered to pay Alesia £5.8million after their 13-year marriage ended in 2016. The first installment was due in February 2020, but when he failed to pay a High Court judge has jailed him for six weeks if he ever returns to the UK.
Texan millionaire Preston Haskell (left with model Petra Nemcova at a charity ball in New York in 2010) is embroiled in a £5.8m divorce with his ex wife Alesia Vladimirovna Haskell (right)
Alesia, 40, a Belarussian model, told MailOnline that she has received no money from her former husband and had to move from her £6,000-a-month rented Chelsea home (pictured)
Haskell has assets and business interested around the world including a South African winery and a ‘magnificent’ £6.5million villa in Cape Town (pictured), and a villa in Johannesburg
Haskell once hosted a £1m New Year’s Eve party in 2012, while at another event guests, including Cheryl Cole, are said to have been handed coded gold wristbands as entry passes
Now Alesia has broken her silence to reveal her heartache over her bitter five-year battle with the property mogul after she accused him of serial infidelity and cocaine and alcohol abuse.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she said: ‘I’ve been relying on friends to help out and get by. I have run out of money. I am out of options. Even the rent and bills he claimed to have paid in court have not been paid by him, they were sorted out by his family. He hasn’t paid me a penny.’
Alesia says she has no more money to fight her ex-husband who called her a ‘gold digger’
Alesia, who is a model from Belarus, but now resides in upmarket Kensington, south-west London, insisted that Mr Justice Moor’s ruling that Mr Haskell’s failure to pay her was in contempt of court and decision to impose a six-week prison sentence in his absence if he did not pay within 14 days would have little affect on him.
‘The judgment doesn’t mean anything because he has never paid anything before or met any ultimatum,’ she said. ‘The 14-day deadline passed and he didn’t do anything.
‘He’s not afraid of going to jail because he has no plans to come here and doesn’t own any properties here so he has no reason to come. I’m relying on the help of friends and his family but not him.
‘I don’t have any more money to fight legal battles in other countries where he has assets. He has never paid to date and now that we have had the hearing in the Court of Appeal, I have got nowhere else to turn.’
Scrabbling around to pay the utility bills and relying on friends for help is a far cry from from the luxury lifestyle the couple enjoyed during their marriage.
The court was told Haskell spent nearly £1 million on a New Year’s Eve party in 2012, while at another event celebrity guests were given coded gold wristbands as entry passes.
Alesia is pictured posing outside one of his Cape Town properties in an Instagram picture
Mr Haskell’s vineyard in Cape Town includes properties that holidaymakers can book to stay in
Haskell owns this beautiful and expansive vineyard in Cape Town with guest accommodation
The vineyard also has a restaurant which guests and tourists can dine in with incredible views
The couple met in Moscow in 2003, but later moved to London, where they rented a £3.3 million flat in Sloane Street. Alesia, who is Belarusian, was a member of the exclusive 5 Hertford Street club.
However, the couple split amid allegations about Haskell’s infidelity, drinking and drug abuse.
The judge had to add up the value of the couple’s assets and how much Mr Haskell – should pay in maintenance, and said the tycoon had even asked him to weigh his ex’s engagement ring in the balance.
But the judge told the court: ‘I do not take into account any value of the wife’s engagement ring. The husband was very keen that I should do so asserting that it was worth perhaps £100,000.
‘It is bordering on the grotesque that the husband should be expecting the wife to liquidate this ring.’
He found that Mr Haskell’s finances were ‘opaque’ and noted the string of businesses and properties he owns – or is linked to – around the world.
These included a South African winery and a ‘magnificent’ £6.5million villa in Cape Town, plus another high-end villa in Johannesburg.
He bought the 57-acre vineyard in 2002 in Stellenbosch and turned it into a winery, restaurant and guest accommodation under the name Haskell Vineyards.
‘The villa in Cape Town is an outstanding property with views over the ocean,’ added the judge.
Mr Haskell had complained that he was in a dire financial position and was unable to get his hands on cash, telling the judge: ‘I have no money at all.’
The real estate boss – once reputedly worth £160million – claimed to have ‘liabilities’ of £50million and to be struggling to meet his maintenance commitments.
Haskell and his ex-wife enjoyed a luxury lifestyle during their 13-year marriage where they enjoyed membership of the exclusive 5 Hertford Street club (pictured)
However, Mr Justice Mostyn decided Mr Haskell could get his hands on sufficient funds to pay his ex £5.8million to conclude their divorce.
Other overseas interests include a stake in a Swedish gold exploration company, part of a building in Kiev, land in Crimea, part of a business in Romania, and an elegant property in the Swedish Archipelago complete with a motor yacht.
He also highlighted social media posts from Mr Haskell in which he was shown speaking about his ‘beautiful year’ and posing with a £400 bottle of vintage red wine.
Giving him two years’ ‘breathing space’ to get his finances on track, he said the final instalment of the bill should be paid by March 2022.
But it was his failure to pay the first £50,000 instalment in February 2020 which triggered his ex’s bid to have him jailed for contempt of court if he did not pay up.
With Mr Haskell now overseas, the case came before Mr Justice Moor in the High Court in May and ended with the judge finding Mr Haskell had ‘entirely set his heart against complying with these court orders other than on his terms’.
‘I am, however, quite clear that he has had, since the date of the order, the means to pay the £50,000 as the first instalment of the lump sum, and that he has refused or neglected to do so,’ the judge commented.
Mr Haskell was handed the prison sentence by Mr Justice Moor, but last week claimed through his legal team at the Court of Appeal that the judge got it wrong.
His ex-wife had herself confirmed he had paid out various sums since February 2020, but could not say how much and had not filed any evidence to update the situation, said his solicitor Adam Tear.
And as Mr Haskell was her source of income, she must have received large amounts from him to enable her to keep paying the £6,000-a-month rent on her Sloane Street apartment, he argued.
Mr Haskell’s ex-wife is pictured posing in an Instagram post at the mogul’s villa in Cape Town
‘As such, without updating evidence, the judge could never have been sure at all even on the balance of probabilities, if the sum had not been discharged by February 2020, it had not been discharged since that time,’ said Mr Tear.
‘On the circumstantial evidence, the judge was bound to conclude that the respondent, whose own source of resource was Mr Haskell, must have received considerable sums of money from him or on his behalf to pay rent, and other costs that have been incurred.
‘The respondent gave no evidence of borrowing money, or other sources of income, not declared in the matrimonial.’
Rejecting his challenge and upholding the prison sentence, Lord Justice Underhill said: ‘The judge was fully entitled to conclude to the criminal standard that £50,000 was still outstanding.’
The billionaire property magnate, his tycoon son and their family empire…and a bid for a Coventry football club
Preston Haskell III is the founder and chairman of the largest privately-held construction business in in Florida
Texan multimillionaire Preston Haskell IV, son of Florida construction mogul Preston Haskell III, earned a degree in economics at the University of Southern California.
He then moved to Russia where in 1992 he started the Haskell International Group working in property.
Although the company initially dealt with real estate investment and property management by 1997 it operated restaurants and a furniture manufacturing company.
He bought a 57-acre vineyard in 2002 in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town in South Africa and turned it into a winery, restaurant and guest accommodation under the name Haskell Vineyards.
In 2003 he met his future wife Alesia in Moscow and the pair got married in 2008.
They moved to London where they had a rented £3.3million apartment in Sloane Street.
And Mr Haskell came to the attention of the British public in 2013 when he put in an unsuccessful buyout bid for Coventry City FC and their stadium, the Ricoh Arena.
At the time Mr Haskell said: ‘The agreement is on condition that I am allowed to purchase Coventry City once the administration process is completed.’
And he was spotted getting on a private jet with football executive Ken Bates who had a hand in the development of Wembley Stadium.
Mr Bates purchased Chelsea FC for just £1 in 1982. He then sold the club for £18million to Roman Abramovic in 2003.
He went on to become honorary president of Leeds United but was fired in 2013, allegedly over a dispute about payment for his private jet.
A judge found that Mr Haskell’s finances were ‘opaque’ and noted the string of businesses and properties he owns – or is linked to – around the world.
These included a South African winery and a ‘magnificent’ £6.5million villa in Cape Town, plus another high-end villa in Johannesburg.
‘The villa in Cape Town is an outstanding property with views over the ocean,’ added the judge.
Mr Haskell had complained that he was in a dire financial position and was unable to get his hands on cash, telling the judge: ‘I have no money at all.’
The real estate boss – once reputedly worth £160million – claimed to have ‘liabilities’ of £50million and to be struggling to meet his maintenance commitments.
However, Mr Justice Mostyn decided Mr Haskell could get his hands on sufficient funds to pay his ex £5.8million to conclude their divorce.
Other overseas interests include a stake in a Swedish gold exploration company, part of a building in Kiev, land in Crimea, part of a business in Romania, and an elegant property in the Swedish Archipelago complete with a motor yacht.
He also highlighted social media posts from Mr Haskell in which he was shown speaking about his ‘beautiful year’ and posing with a £400 bottle of vintage red wine.
The claim Mr Haskell has ‘no money’ has however been disputed by his ex-wife’s barrister, Alexander Knight, who told a judge he still has access to ‘substantial sums’, including a trust fund valued at around £22million.
The High Court heard that Mr Haskell had renounced his United States citizenship and become a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis, and Sweden.
However it is believed Mr Haskell has been in the USA during parts of the High Court hearing and Appeal case.
Mr Haskell’s father, born in Birmingham, Alabama, is the founder and chairman of the largest privately-held construction business in in Florida – The Haskell Company.
He was also a minority owner of the National Football League Jacksonville Jaguars.
After graduating in 1956 from Indian Springs School, he went to Princeton and received a civil engineering degree with honours in 1960 before going on to receive an MBA with distinction from Harvard in 1962 and attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It was after he left MIT and started working at S.S. Jacobs Company that he was encouraged to break out on his own and create the Preston H. Haskell Company.
The business got its first project in 1965 and successfully designed and built a $1million apartment complex at Atlantic Beach.
The company steadily grew and is today recognised as one of the top firms in the US.
Mr Haskell received the Engineering News Record Southeast’s 2020 Legacy Award.
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