Harold Hamm is the 13th child of Oklahoma cotton sharecroppers who later became a billionaire. After graduating from high school he pumped gas and repaired cars. Today the 68-year-old is the CEO and Chairman of the oil exploration company Continental Resources (CLR). He’s worth $20 billion. But for how long? He and his second wife, Sue Ann, are in the middle of a high-stakes divorce, which is shaping up to become the world’s most expensive divorce in history. Although Hamm started the company two decades before marrying Sue Ann, 58, she could get half.
It’s up to Judge Howard Haralson to determine how to split the assets. He needs to figure out how much of the $20 billion are “active assets” (from hard work) and how much are “passive assets” (from luck, as CNBC wealth editor Robert Frank describes it). Of course Harold Hamm’s lawyers are claiming that Harold had a lot of luck because he gets to keep passive assets. But that’s going to be a hard sell. Plus, his soon-to-be ex-wife isn’t your ordinary trophy wife. She’s an economist and was once an attorney at Continental Resources. That’s where they met!
