A US court has ordered Google to hand over the personal emails of the son
of a Russian oligarch as part of a bitter $601 million divorce case. From
a report (Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]:
Judge Virginia DeMarchi in California told the US tech group to surrender
Temur Akhmedov’s emails for use as evidence in a lawsuit brought by his
mother, Tatiana Akhmedova, the wife of an ally of President Vladimir
Putin. Ms Akhmedova has gone to court in the US and the UK in an attempt
to force her ex-husband, Farkhad Akhmedov, to pay the world’s
largest-ever divorce settlement. Google said the order was a breach of
its customer’s privacy. The divorce case, which is being funded by
litigation financier Burford Capital, has led to a legal battle over
assets including a helicopter, a private jet and a superyacht called the
Luna that used to belong to Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
Google sought to block the order to give up the emails this week on the
basis that to do so would infringe Mr Akhmedov’s right to privacy because
he had not given consent to share them. Ms DeMarchi said Google’s concern
for the “privacy and security of its account holders’ communications” was “commendable” but ruled the request did not breach the US Stored
Communications Act, which governs voluntary and compelled disclosure of
emails. The information from the emails will be used to learn whether
Temur assisted his father in the fraudulent transfer of assets, and if
so, to win a judgment against him, Tatiana Akhmedova said in a filing. …
