£50m big catfight: Claws out as divorcing tiger sanctuary wife launches new battle for her husband’s millions

The woman who claims her banker husband has hidden millions of pounds of her divorce settlement in a tiger charity is set to launch a new legal battle – and says he cared so little for animals he wouldn’t even allow her to have house cats.

Li Quan, a former executive at fashion house Gucci, recently won the right to appeal against a court judgment that branded her an ‘unreliable liar blinded by revenge’.

She claims that Stuart Bray used a £50 million offshore trust set up to fund a shelter for South China tigers to hide his money. In turn, Mr Bray maintains he has committed his cash to saving endangered animals and is virtually penniless.

But speaking for the first time about the case in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Li, 53, said: ‘I’m not trying to take money from charity or deprive the tigers. I am not trying to be greedy. All I want is my fair share so that I can rebuild my life. I have tried to settle this amicably but he wants me to have nothing.

‘My husband is a very clever man. He didn’t even like animals that much – I had to beg him to let me have two house cats. He complained that they left hair everywhere.’

Li’s case in the acrimonious divorce appeared to have collapsed after a judge branded her an unreliable witness. But two High Court judges have since ruled there is a real prospect of an appeal succeeding.

The couple, who met at business school in the US in 1990, married in 2001 and set up home in a luxury penthouse overlooking the Thames.

While her husband worked as an executive for Deutsche Bank, Li resigned from her role at Gucci to work as a conservationist, specialising in reintroducing tigers into the wild. She established the Save China’s Tigers charity, which has an 81,000-acre wildlife reserve in South Africa that is home to 20 critically endangered big cats. All are destined to be returned to their natural habitat in three reserves in China.

Mr Bray bankrolled the charity, whose celebrity supporters include martial arts star Jackie Chan, actress Michelle Yeoh and businessman David Tang, funnelling millions through a charitable trust.

But Li claims she lost custody of the tigers after Mr Bray ousted her from the charity’s board in 2012. She also claims he transferred all their joint assets, including the £23 million reserve in South Africa, to the offshore trust.

She alleges that the trust is protected by a complex financial structure which makes it tax-efficient, but opaque. ‘He had all the power,’ she said. ‘I had nothing in my name except a dormant bank account. I had no idea how much he actually took home.

‘Stuart took care of our finances and I focused on the tigers.’

Li, who is being represented by divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag, added: ‘The trust became our only source of income.

‘We used it for everything, from holidays to nights out at expensive restaurants. Neither of us took a salary. It paid all our expenses.’

Mr Bray said: ‘A Family Court [in October 2014] made a finding of fact that I did not hide joint assets and also found my wife to be an unreliable witness, whose actions have been motivated by revenge.

‘I’ve repeatedly offered to settle out of court, but I can’t pay as much as she wants. It’s more than I can afford. All the money in the trust is for the tigers charity.’

Mr Bray said he no longer sat on the board of the trust and that the original sum was closer to £25 million, not £50 million.

He also insisted that he had no problems with cats, despite Li’s claims, and that she resigned from the charity of her own accord.