Tycoon Ashish Thakkar, once described as Africa’s youngest billionaire, is being pursued in the courts by a claim from his ex-wife over who gets to go on this trip of a lifetime. Meera Manek, a 33-year-old food blogger and writer, claims that her former husband is still a billionaire and is seeking a share of his assets. Mr Thakkar argues that he actually only has less than £500,000 to his name – despite the fact that the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at over £500 million when featuring him as recently as 2015 (but failed to include him in the 2016 list).

Mr Thakkar is now facing the possibility that he will need to sell his ticket to space, or give it to his ex-wife as part of the divorce settlement. The ticket is for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space flight and cost £160,000 to buy. The 35-year-old businessman, who was born in Leicester but grew up in East Africa and now resides in Dubai, was one of the first super rich clients to snap up a ticket and once expressed his wish to be the very first East African in space.

A key point about the Virgin Galactic ticket in relation to this case is that it is fully refundable all the way up until the day of the flight, which means that it technically could be cashed in to form part of the divorce payout to Ms Manek. A source is believed to have told the paper:

“It [the ticket] is an asset Ashish still holds and will be considered as part of the investigation into his total wealth. Meera will demand the cost of the ticket be counted in his assets. She could demand he cashes it in.”

Uncovering assets

It is now the job of the High Court to determine what exactly Mr Thakkar owns and what his wealth and assets really are. It’ll take just five days to come to a conclusion, and then a further trial will take place where divorce solicitors for his ex-wife will put the case forward for how much she is entitled to as a settlement. According to the Telegraph, the legal bills alone in this complicated case could reach a staggering £1 million.

Facing a complicated settlement situation?

Thankfully, not all divorces are as complicated as this one. However, whenever there is confusion as to who owns what or an attempt to hide or disguise assets – things can very quickly become hard to untangle. It is in these situations that you need an expert on your side, such as Liverpool divorce lawyer Tracey Miller Family Law and their experienced team.