A property developer who co-owns one of the most lucrative buildings in New York has been ordered to pay his estranged wife £3.5million a year in a High Court divorce.
Michael Fuchs, who moved from Germany to the US in the 1990s, is embroiled in a multimillion-pound battle with Alvina Collardeau-Fuchs, a 46-year-old French-born former journalist who he split from in 2020.
The couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their wedding in 2012, and two years later signed a "modification agreement" that increased the amount to be paid to Collardeau-Fuchs if their marriage broke down.
The arrangement meant Mr Fuchs would have to provide his ex-wife with net capital of £23.5million plus 18 years of rent-free accommodation at their west London home.
However, in court yesterday, Ms Collardeau-Fuchs claimed that Fuchs stopped making the agreed payments soon after they separated.
In court documents, she accused him of attempting to "pull the shutters down" on her life and expenses.
Collardeau-Fuchs added that about six months after their split, her husband capped monthly expenditure on her American Express card to $20,000 a month, although that was eventually raised by $5,000.
Collardeau-Fuchs had also told the court she wanted maintenance of £130,000 a month. Her husband had offered £31,000 a month.
In his ruling yesterday in the family division of the High Court, Mr Justice Mostyn noted that Fuchs, who bought the 1930s Manhattan skyscraper three years ago, had $1.064 billion (£780 million) and his wife nearly $4.5 million.
At the Family Division of the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Mostyn concluded that Mr Fuchs' "overall liability" would amount to "an annual rate of £3.64million" until a final decision on settlement is made.
Mr Fuchs, who was born in Germany but moved to the US in the 1990s, is a property developer with a fortune estimated at £1.2billion.
He married Ms Collardeau-Fuchs in New York in 2012 and the couple had two children before separating in March 2020.
The High Court judge said Mr Fuchs had owned a "significant amount of prime mid-town Manhattan real estate" before marrying Ms Collardeau-Fuchs.
He said the couple "would spend a great deal of time travelling, typically by private plane or first-class commercial flights, and staying in high-end hotels or villas at significant cost".
Mr Justice Mostyn said they had shared a home in London, where Ms Collardeau-Fuchs still lives, and that the property has six floors, five bedrooms and an underground swimming pool and, historically, a "retinue of staff " including a laundress.
There was also a villa in Antibes, France, and a penthouse in Miami.
A final hearing is due to start on October 10.
