The acrimonious divorce between millionaire banker Stuart Bray and his conservationist wife Li Quan continues, amidst Ms Quan’s claims that her husband hid his money in their tiger charity, as reported by Mail on Sunday.
The couple were married in 2001 and moved to London, where Mr Bray worked as an executive for Deutsche Bank. His wife, who had previously worked as an executive at Gucci, gave up work to devote herself entirely to setting up a tiger conservation programme, which aims to reintroduce the animals back into the wild.
Although Ms Quan was initially on the board of the Save China’s Tiger’s charity, she asserts that her husband removed her in 2012, after he transferred all their joint assets worth around £50 million, including the tigers’ reservation in South Africa, to an offshore trust. This, she believes, was a deliberate attempt to effectively leave her with no knowledge of his income and no personal assets of her own.
Mr Bray on the other hand, claims that after funding the charity for a number of years, he found himself virtually penniless. He advises that the value of the joint assets was closer to £25 million and that it was his wife’s decision to retire from the board of the charity. He has, he says, tried many times to settle out of court but Ms Quan demands more money than he can afford.
The case was initially heard in a Family Court in October 2014, where the judge ruled that not only did Mr Bray not hide the joint assets, but that his wife was an unreliable witness.
Since that time however, it has been reported that two High Court judges have indicated the validity of an appeal, and Ms Quan is all set to launch a new round of legal proceedings.