Nearly $1 Billion Wasn’t Enough: The Harold Hamm Divorce and What It Means for You

Back in November, oil tycoon and billionaire Harold Hamm was ordered to pay his wife roughly $995.5 million in equitable distribution. On top of that payment, his wife, Susan Ann Hamm, received two houses and a ranch. The order came after a lengthy divorce trial that reportedly cost Mrs. Hamm twenty million dollars to litigate. The parties had been married for 26 years.

After the order was issued, Mr. Hamm hand wrote her a check in the amount of $974,790,317.77. Apparently Mrs. Hamm was unhappy with the judgment because her husband was worth between $14 and $19 billion dollars. That would give her under ten percent of his entire net worth after a lengthy marriage. She initially planned to appeal the order that granted her almost one billion dollars in liquid cash so Mrs. Hamm did not cash the billion dollar check!

However, Mrs. Hamm has now changed her mind and deposited the check. As a result, it is likely that this expensive divorce battle may come to an end. Falling oil prices have hurt Mr. Hamm’s net worth and that was cited as a potential reason why she cashed the check. The copy of the check can be seen here. It is interesting to see that Mr. Hamm had a billion dollars in his checking account. I suppose that was why she was considering going after more.