Archive for July 22nd, 2010

Boris Berezovsky in ‘£100m’ divorce battle – Telegraph

Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch, will divorce his second wife Galina today in what could be the costliest marriage split in British legal history.

The exiled businessman, who will not contest the case at the High Court, is reportedly expected to pay his second wife anything up to £100 million, which would be more than double the previous record of £48m.

Mr Berezovsky and his wife have been married for 18 years, though they have been separated for the last 16. Mrs Berezovsky lives in London with the couple’s two teenage children, while he lives in Surrey with his girlfriend of 15 years, Yelena Gorbunova, with whom he has another two children.

Mrs Berezovsky, who hired the law firm Mishcon de Reya to negotiate a divorce settlement, is reported to have been seeking a quarter of her husband’s fortune, which was once estimated at £1 billion but is now thought to be far less.

The couple met in 1981 when Mr Berezovsky, 64, was a professor of mathematics in Moscow earning £60 a month. He later set himself up in business as a car dealer, founding the first Mercedes dealership in the old Soviet Union, then became one of the original Russian oligarchs when President Boris Yeltsin sold off state assets to favoured supporters for a fraction of their value.

He married Galina after divorcing his first wife, Nina, with whom he has two further children, but his second marriage hit trouble after only three years and the couple separated.

Mrs Berezovsky, 51, is reported to have filed for divorce after becoming irritated at reports describing Miss Gorbunova as the oligarch’s “wife”.

Mr Berezovsky was sentenced to six years imprisonment in his absence in Moscow after being found guilty of fraud, having been granted political asylum in 2003 when Russia applied to have him extradited. He has since accused the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin of being behind a plot to assassinate him.

Lord Bell, Mr Berezovsky’s spokesman, has confirmed in the past that the businessman was “negotiating a divorce settlement” and intended to marry Miss Gorbunova once the divorce was finalised.

The current record for a divorce settlement in a British court is the £48m awarded by the High Court to Beverley Charman, the former wife of the insurance millionaire John Charman, in 2006.

For a free consultation, contact your local Knoxville divorce attorney at The McKellar Law Firm, PLLC at (865) 566-0125.

A recent article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel underscores a dangerous aspect of modern transportation, the railroad crossing.

After 31 years as a Norfolk Southern Corp. train engineer, B.L. Inman has seen too many train accidents.

When he hits the emergency brakes of a train engine car in hopes of avoiding a pedestrian or automobile at a railroad crossing, he says he has done all he can.

“After I hit the emergency brake, it’s all in God’s hands,” he said.

State sponsored Operation Lifesaver teamed with Norfolk Southern to help educate area officials about railway safety early Wednesday morning.

Operation Lifesaver, which is sponsored by 22 states nationwide, is an “international, nonprofit organization education and awareness program dedicated to ending tragic collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad rights of way.”

Skip Stigall, superintendent for Norfolk Southern’s Knoxville terminal, said the program helps to educate the public about the dangers of breaking the law.

“We’re trying to give people an idea of what train crews go through every day,” he said. “These are dangerous situations the public puts us in when they violate the laws.”

Local law enforcement and railway officials had the opportunity to ride a three-car train consisting of two passenger cars and an exhibit car to learn what engineers like Inman encounter on a daily basis.

Before riding, passengers had the opportunity to tour the exhibit car, which was an interactive learning station on train tracks. Passengers could test their engineering skills on a Norfolk Southern engine car simulator, which guided them through real world examples of what train engineers face daily, see what the hub of a railway terminal looks like, and read about the history of Norfolk Southern.

During a nearly five-hour ride, passengers also had the opportunity to see what engineers see through a camera mounted on the train’s engine car. Stigall said while they traveled, passengers would witness citizens breaking the law, and local law enforcement were waiting to issue violators citations.

Inman said informing the public of his job and daily duties helps avoid what could be a fatal collision.

“Taking this engine versus a soda can would be the same as this engine and your car,” he said. “We can’t stop on a dime. We’re not like an automobile.”

According to 2009 Federal Railroad Administration statistics, Tennessee ranked 10th nationwide in highway-rail grade crossing collisions with 55.

Inman attributes the statistic to people not knowing how long it takes a fully loaded train, which travels about 50 mph and weighs around 16,000 tons, to come to a complete stop.

“When I throw on the brake, it takes a minimum of a mile for this train to stop,” he said.

Nash Armstrong may be reached at 865-342-6336.

If  you or a loved one have been injured in a collision with a train or other vehicle, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.