Property mogul Michael Fuchs has been ordered by a judge to pay his wife £855,600 a year plus £2.78m in annual expenses while they finalise their divorce.
Fuchs, 62, is the co-founder of RFR Holdings, which owns much of Manhattan, including the Chrysler Building (pictured). According to court papers, he estimates his net worth to be more than $1bn (£735m).
He and his wife, Alvina Collardeau-Fuchs – who married in 2012 and separated in 2020 – are engaged in divorce proceedings in London, where the family is based. And, although the litigation is “at a relatively early stage”, according to a judgment handed down today (21 February), the pair of them have already spent more than £900,000 in legal fees.
At a hearing earlier this month, lawyers for Collardeau-Fuchs asked for the court to set how much Fuchs should give her until the divorce proceedings are finalised, saying that he has significantly cut her allowance.
“Following separation in March 2020, the wife complains that the husband, in effect, almost immediately reduced the provision he was making for her,” Mr Justice Mostyn, the Family Court judge hearing the case, said in today’s ruling.
He added: “She claims that, prior to separation, the husband had transferred £10,000 per month to her HSBC account and €20,000 (£16,700) to her Société Générale account (if not more in some months). He stopped making those payments in April 2020 and, upon being invited to reinstate the transfers in June 2020, declined to do so.
“The wife says that in December 2020 the husband limited expenditure on her American Express card to $20,000 per month (although this was later raised to $25,000 per month). The wife makes various other complaints about the husband’s failure to make payment of other outgoings on time (including payment of staff salaries).”
According the the judge, “The husband’s response to the wife’s complaint is that she had been spending at a profligate level and that the time had come to impose some financial discipline. He has said, for example, that the wife spent $273,000 in October 2020 and $185,000 in November 2020 on her American Express card and that that is why he imposed the limit on it. He also denies the allegation made that he has failed to make the payment of various outgoings on time.”
As well as asking for an allowance of £130,000 a month (£1.6m a year), Alvina Collardeau-Fuchs claimed that he should also pay overheads including the running costs of property in Antibes, Miami and London, taking the total sum up to £4.3m a year.
The family home in west London is, according to court documents, more than 700 sq m in size, with six floors, five bedrooms and a pool. It is worth more than £30m and has a mortgage of £21.5m.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Mostyn said that spending in 2019 should be used to work out the “marital standard of living” due. He said that she should be given £71,300 a month (£855,600 a year) plus annual overheads and expenses of £2.78m.
“The husband’s overall liability under my order will therefore be an approximate annual rate of £3.64m,” he said. “That is my judgment.”
