Oklahoma billionaire Harold Hamm was ordered to pay $972 million of a $16.1 billion oil industry fortune to his wife, while keeping the bulk of his 68 percent stake in Continental Resources Inc. following a contentious divorce trial.
The decision was largely a victory for Hamm, who was allowed to retain control of the company in part because witnesses identified him as the driving force behind Continental, with one calling him the “captain of the ship.” Hamm, the company’s chairman, also was ordered to pay much less than what could have been awarded to his wife.
Hamm, 68, who helped pioneer shale exploration in the Bakken oil basin of North Dakota and Montana, served as an energy adviser to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He is the chairman and largest shareholder of Continental, the biggest leaseholder in the Bakken, and the region’s top oil producer.
“While a billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, Harold Hamm and his attorneys left the courtroom very well aware that they had scored a very huge victory,” Seymour J. Reisman, a divorce lawyer with the New York firm of Reisman, Peirez, Reisman and Capobianco, said in an e-mail.
A billionaire’s spouse of several decades should’ve expected to receive at least 25 percent to 30 percent of the marital assets, which “would’ve have amounted to between $4.25 billion and $5.1 billion. Mrs. Hamm received under four percent,” he said.
His Company
“The company was his before the marriage,” said Michael Burrage, a lawyer for Hamm, who added that Hamm won’t have to liquidate any holdings. “He can handle paying what the court has ordered him to pay, and none of this will affect Continental.”
Sue Ann Hamm sued for divorce in 2012, and the couple stipulated to a “state of mutual irreconcilable incompatibility” the following year. However, they required a 10-week trial in Oklahoma City to sort out their financial differences.
After a 26-year marriage, she will receive a lump sum payment of $323 million by the end of this year, followed by $7 million a month until the balance she’s owed under the decree is paid, according to papers signed today by Oklahoma state judge Harold Haralson. Along with cash, Sue Ann Hamm was awarded the couple’s $4.7 million home in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, their $15 million ranch in California’s Carmel Valley and all of its livestock except a pair of horses named “Star” and “Uno.”
Moving Horses