Russian oligarch’s ‘mistress’ who was left £100m inheritance including £12m Surrey mansion upon his death WINS court fight with his adult children who claimed his will ‘had been torn up’

The ‘mistress’ of a Britain-loving Russian oligarch who was left his £100million inheritance upon his death has won a High Court battle with his adult children over the late tycoon’s will. 

Businessman Vladimir Alekseyevich Scherbakov died in June 2017, leaving behind a huge fortune sunk in assets across the globe including the £12million Surrey mansion where he had lived with his British-based partner Brigita Morina and their children.  

The final will he made in England in 2015 left the vast majority of his assets outside Russia to Ms Morina and her family, but she ended up locked in a court fight over that fortune with his adult children from a previous relationship.

Siblings Olga Scherbakova, 34, and Alexander Scherbakov, 25, claimed that their father ‘must have torn up’ the ‘original’ will because he wanted them to share in the fortune.

But Ms Morina, 42, said the will has not been ‘torn up,’ but in fact ‘misappropriated’ and used in an attempt to ‘extort’ €35million out of her for its return. She insisted the siblings must have been involved in the ‘suppression’ of the will, but – representing themselves in court – both denied knowing anything about it or where the document now is.

Giving judgment on the will dispute today, Mrs Justice Bacon ruled in favour of the will benefiting Ms Morina, finding that it existed at the time of Mr Scherbakov’s death and was later examined during the ‘extortion’ attempt in Paris in 2021.

His adult children and ex-wife Elena Scherbakova ‘were all involved in the suppression’ of the will, she found, adding: ‘It follows from these findings that the 2015 will cannot be said to have been revoked.’ 

Brigita Morina, fiancée Vladimir Scherbakov at the time of his death, pictured outside the High Court previously. She has been described as the Russian oligarch’s ‘mistress’

Scherbakov’s adult children from his marriage, Alexander and Olga, both pictured outside the High Court in London, are staking their claim to their father’s fortune

Vladimir Alekseyevich Scherbakov was found dead in Belgium in 2017 as he was being investigated by the Kremlin on charges of fraud

During the trial, heard over three weeks in October and November, the judge was told Mr Scherbakov had Olga and Alexander with his wife Elena, but the pair split and he went on to form a relationship with Ms Morina – former creative director of luxury Swiss watchmakers DeLaneau – in 2010.

He spent his time with her in England, partly at £12m Granville House, his mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, as well as owning Ringo Starr’s former home ‘Summer Haze,’ a multimillion-pound townhouse in Pont Street, Belgravia, and a £400,000 wine collection.

He was a member of prestigious London clubs, including the Arts Club, in Dover Street, and Mayfair’s 5 Hertford Street club, proposing to Ms Morina at a Knightsbridge restaurant in 2015.

Ms Morina’s lawyers said Mr Scherbakov had made great ‘attempts to integrate in English society by watching rugby, drinking beer, taking golf lessons, and following the British Royal Family.’

‘He was a great admirer of our late Queen, which is very British,’ said her barrister, Hodge Malek KC.

However, he fled to Belgium in 2016 to avoid extradition after a criminal complaint was filed against him by Andrey Lugovoy, a former Russian Security Services agent and deputy in the Russian Duma, who was found by the European Court of Human Rights to have murdered Alexander Litvinenko.

Mr Malek said that, once in Belgium, Mr Scherbakov lived in fear, refusing ‘to eat fruit given by others out of fear that it may have been poisoned’ and terrified that his conversations were being bugged, leading to him only using encrypted forms of communication.

The criminal investigation was eventually dropped, but he was found hanged in Belgium in 2017, aged 56.

Following his death, his two families ended ranged against each other in courts in various parts of the world, including a fight which resulted in a Belgian judge handing the right to dispose of their father’s body to his adult children.

In another struggle involving his offshore business interests in the British Virgin Isles, his companies were said by a judge to have ‘at least a nine-figure dollar value’

At London’s High Court, Ms Morina and the adult children fought over his final will, which left Ms Morina and her family almost all his non-Russian assets, said to be worth ‘in excess of £100 million’. However, with the original will unaccounted for, his adult children Olga and Alexander claimed that their father must have destroyed it because he no longer wanted Ms Morina to benefit so greatly.

Mr Malek argued that the will could not have been destroyed, because it was examined by an expert in the course of an alleged ‘extortion’ attempt against his client.

The barrister explained that a mystery individual had contacted Ms Morina’s lawyers in 2020, saying he was ‘prepared to give the original English will in exchange for €35million’.

He said an offer had been made to handover the document in exchange for €35million and the document forensically analysed during a meeting in Paris.

Although they firmly denied involvement and claimed the extortion claim was a ‘set up,’ Mr Malek said the ‘irresistible inference’ from the evidence was that the siblings were involved in the ‘suppression’ of the will.

He said they and their mother – who has stopped actively participating in the case despite being a party – had ‘attacked [Ms Morina] on multiple fronts, at great human and emotional cost.’

Scherbakov had been living with girlfriend Ms Morina (pictured) at Granville House

The £12million Granville House in Surrey, which is among the assets in the £100million will

It included denigrating the quality of her relationship with Mr Scherbakov, which they characterised as an ‘affair’ or ‘romantic relationship,’ when in fact it was a ‘lasting and deep-rooted relationship.’

‘[Ms Morina’s] case is that Vladimir consistently intended to provide for her and their children upon his death pursuant to the provisions of the English will,’ the barrister told Mrs Justice Bacon.

Ruling on the inheritance dispute today, the judge said that the will which was presented for inspection by the expert in 2021 as part of the ‘extortion’ attempt was genuine.

And the evidence in the case pointed to the siblings and their mother being ‘at the very least involved in the suppression of the will.’

Correspondence between Ms Morina and the person named as holding the will – Khatouna Avdoyan – showed the sender ‘knew a lot about the litigation and the parties to the litigation, which only those parties – or those very close to them – could have known,’ she said.

Although it was denied that she was actually involved, the person named, Ms Avdoyan, was someone ‘entirely unknown to Brigita’ but later shown to be ‘a very close friend of Olga’ and close to the Scherbakov family in general, said the judge.

Olga told the court Ms Avdoyan denied holding the will and claimed to be a victim of identity theft, but the judge said that once the connections between Ms Avdoyan and the family were revealed, ‘the explanations given by Olga and Alexander in their witness evidence and at the hearing were evasive and obfuscatory.’

‘It is difficult to see why Olga and Alexander would have been so reluctant to disclose their connections with Ms Avdoyan, both before and during the trial, if they genuinely had nothing whatsoever to do with the suppression of the 2015 will and the naming of Ms Avdoyan as the person holding that will,’ she said.

‘Their evasiveness was not to their credit, and strongly suggested that they had something to hide.’

She said she had come to the ‘clear conclusion that Elena, Olga and Alexander were all involved in the suppression of the 2015 will.’

‘The…suggestion made by Olga that Brigita was in some way involved in fabricating an extortion attempt directed at herself, in order to pursue a ‘personal vendetta’ against the Scherbakov family, is completely nonsensical,’ she added.

‘The unavailability of the 2015 will is undoubtedly due to force majeure in the form of the suppression of the will by someone claiming to be Ms Avdoyan, with the probable involvement – as I have found – of Elena, Olga and Alexander.’

Finding that the will should be governed by English law, the judge found that Mr Scherbakov’s ‘domicile of choice’ had become England by the summer of 2015 when he and Ms Morina became engaged and that remained so until he died.

Although there were ‘significant difficulties’ in the relationship, partially due to his alcoholism, he and Ms Morina had ‘remained a couple’ until the day he died, she continued.

The decision means that the 2015 will benefiting Ms Morina and her family stands and will be administered under English law.

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