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[TonyGosling]

Tory donor's spending exposed in bitter divorce settlement
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/11/tory-donors-spending-exposed-in-bitter-divorce-settlement

The extraordinary spending habits of a star London hedge fund manager – worth £660m and a big Tory party donor – have been exposed in a bitter divorce settlement.

Christopher Rokos, 45, faced demands from his ex-wife, Veronica Antonio, for annual allowances including £5,000 for their seven-year-old son’s swimming lessons, £10,555 for wine to entertain the parents of their child’s friends and £6,000 for Uber cars to drive him to and from school.

The judgment noted that Rokos had been handing over a “grand total” of £267,000 a year, including such sums such as £19,500 for “[The child’s] birthday party”, £8,500 for vet’s bills and £5,000 for “clothing for [the child]”. The two were nevertheless fighting in court because she wanted £60,000 a year more than Rokos was willing to pay.

The judgment by Mr Justice Holman, released by the family court on Friday, records his personal distaste at having to deal with the dispute between the couple involving a difference of £60,000 a year.

“To most people, £60,000 is a great deal of money,” he said. “I do comment that to these parties, and to this father, £60,000 over a full year is little more than small change in his pocket.

“… I have to say that I do not find it very edifying that people in this financial bracket should be taking up a day of court time over a sum which to them, though not to others, is objectively so small. However, agreement has not been reached and I must rule.” Both sides hired experienced QCs to represent them in court.

Despite the sums involved, Holman also concluded that while Rokos was “rich” that “this father is not by modern standards in the realms of the super-rich”.

Rokos has donated more than £1.8m in cash to the Conservatives since 2010, according to the Electoral Commission. He studied at Eton and Oxford before starting out as a trader at Goldman Sachs and went on to book profits of more than $4bn (£2.8bn) over a decade at Brevan Howard Asset Management as a specialist trader in interest rates swaps.

Rokos’s wealth has smoothed his way to dinners with ministers, including the prime minister and George Osborne. During the case, it was revealed that he owns homes in Cannes, Marrakesh, Miami and New York as well as London.

The judge explained: “It turns out that the £35,000 is not referable solely to the transportation of the child but is, the cost of provision of one of the cars and drivers employed by the father, but not used exclusively for the transportation of the child.”

Commenting on Antonio’s demands, Holman said: “One knows perfectly
well … that these sorts of documents can be highly creative and involve dialogue, usually, between the litigant and his or her lawyers as to what would be an appropriate figure to insert.” He continued: “Separately, there is an item of £5,000 for ‘Swimming lessons (cash)’. This seems an excessive amount for a seven-year-old boy who can already, as I was told, swim. It seems to pertain partly to paying for some swimming instructor to attend some private swimming pool that the mother chooses to use.”

The judge also highlighted that considerable sums were being claimed by Antonio for wine: “In her statement, she showed that she was allowing an average of £50 per bottle for the wine. It seems to me that in the context of a claim under Schedule 1 to the Children Act, which must be for the maintenance of the child, I should not allow as high a figure as £10,500 per annum for wine, although I still allow a significant figure for wine.”

He added: “There are four items under the headings, ‘Amazon (clothes and toys for [the child])’ and ‘General Retail’ and ‘Clothing [for the child]’ and ‘Toys for [the child]’ which between them total about £20,000. That seems to me to be a great deal of money for clothes and toys for the seven-year-old son even of a multimillionaire….”

The court was told that Antonio does not own more than one home and “accordingly, has to pay for hotels”.

Concluding, Holman ordered Rokos to make maintenance payments to the mother for all her other expenditure of £8,000 a month.
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