Legal wrangle involved two separate charities
The ex-wife of hedge fund boss Sir Christopher Hohn has secured victory in a five-year legal wrangle over a £270 million donation to her charitable foundation.
The dispute started after billionaire Sir Christopher, 53, split from Jamie Cooper, 54, and a deal was struck for a payment to be made from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which they had founded together, to another charity she had set up.
Running CIFF together after the divorce had proved impossible, and they agreed that £270 million ($360m) would go to Cooper’s new charity, Big Win Philanthropy, which also helps vulnerable children.
Matthew S Dontzin, who represented Cooper, called the ruling “a complete victory.”
“The truth of her claim could not be denied no matter how many legal obstacles they tried to throw at her”, he said. “This is a well-deserved and long overdue victory for Ms Cooper, who has dedicated her life to helping underprivileged children in developing countries and plans to use this money to continue that important mission.”
Sir Christopher agreed to pay a record-breaking £337 million to his wife when they divorced in November 2014. However the fate of the charitable funds remained in the balance as Dr Lehtimaki insisted he was entitled to exercise his discretion rather than being forced by the courts.
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which was established in 2002, has assets of more than £3 billion with offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, London, Nairobi and New Delhi, and has the stated aim of ending child labour and sexual exploitation.
