Oil Mogul Ordered to Pay Ex-Wife Nearly $1 Billion

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Oil tycoon and Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm must pay his ex-wife nearly $1 billion in a divorce settlement.

According to USA Today, Oklahoma County Judge Howard Haralson ordered Hamm, the richest man in Oklahoma, to pay ex-wife Sue Ann Hamm $995.4 million in “property division alimony.”

Nearly a third of the settlement ($322.7 million) is due by the end of the year, after which Hamm will be required to pay his ex-wife monthly installments of at least $7 million until the judgment is paid off. According to Forbes:

To make sure Hamm, worth $14 billion as of this afternoon [Nov. 10], is good for it, the court placed a lien on 20 million shares of Continental stock. Hamm owns 253 million shares, or more than 70 percent of Continental.

“This is a fair and equitable outcome to the case,” Harold Hamm said in an emailed statement to Forbes.

NBC News said expert witnesses for Sue Ann Hamm had urged the court to “divide a fortune valued at about $17.6 billion in wealth that had accrued in Harold’s shares of the company since 1988, when she married Harold.” The ruling is subject to appeal.

Harold Hamm has amassed much of his fortune fracking in the Bakken oil field of North Dakota.

Though this is a notably large divorce settlement, it’s not the most expensive. That distinction belongs to Russian oligarch Dmitri Rybolovlev, known as the “Fertilizer King,” who USA Today said was ordered to pay $4.5 billion to his ex-wife Elena in May.

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