This was my former home for five years
This is very hard because this is the first time I've been back to this house since we sold it in 2001
This is the main driveway here, which it starts at the top there
We used to have many cars sitting on the driveway
Ferraris Bentleys
Phantoms
Porsches
Mr. Young had a different car for each day of the week
What I find hard
Looking at this today is that
You know not only my ex-husband, but he was a father of my two girls
Why he did this I don't understand
It's complete betrayal
What do you miss about being here
Everything
I used to wake up
Every day I feel very privileged
You know to wake up. Yeah, because it's a wonderful house. Happy memories of my daughters
I'll go out, play with the animals and we used to go and pick strawberries in the garden
Now, it's very hard
This memory is that I kind of popped
It's very hard to give up
Who said I've given up?
This isn't over yet
Michelle for the divorce has many radically downsizing
She's gone mansion to a basement flat
Good Morning
Um Guys, you mind taking your shoes off before we start?
Just recently moved in so it's quite chaotic still
My daughter's kindly offered to put a little bit of makeup on me because I almost work 24/7
so she does not want to be filmed so can we cut here
The flat is shared with one of her grown-up daughters. They live among the remnants of their former life.
What did you learn on this?
Zero. The judgment order that I received in November 2013
Was an empty paper bag because I didn't I've never received a penny
And how much it is supposed to be?
For 26.6 million
Despite the court order, Michelle's husband simply never paid up
And then there were Michelle's legal fees. She'd taken out high interest loans to pay for the years of litigation
How much you think you ended up spending?
On fees, it was over 6 million in hard cash and
10 million was on
The interest
Charged. So you're speaking about
16 million, in fact it was nearly 17 million pounds
So you ended up with debts of 17 million?
Yes.
Michelle had been banking on the divorce settlement paying off the loans
She is now bankrupt.
I wanted to know why she was still pursuing the money
The fact that its 10 years now isn't it?
Yes.
Since you first half-divorced. Yeah. you still seem to be on the case battling
Battling it's a very big big battle. It's a war in fact
Most people would have given up by now trying to fight money
I absolutely not
It's never entered my mind
It's not even a discussion
That was taken when we actually were living in Miami. It was a difficult time
We was having problems with a marriage, and we just thought we'd have a fresh start somewhere else
What he was actually doing at that time he was planning to do other things
He was having many affairs during the marriage
Who were the affairs with? Most women?
Supermodels. Young young women. Beautiful young women
One day I had a phone call to say "your husband has been having an affair"
He's lost all the money, and he's now in the Prairie
And you know I came off the phone shocked I had the girls with me. I was actually in my bedroom at the time
and the first thing
That I said this isn't true
That phone call is the turning point in our lives
Michelle and the girls flew back to the UK
To petition for divorce and so began the first round of a seven-year fight
In one corner was Michelle convinced her husband was worth hundreds of millions of pounds
In the other was Scott claiming he'd lost everything in a big Russian property deal and that he was bankrupt
Now I'm sitting there one day
with an ex Scotland Yard detective
and eyes watched us
and he said is there anything he's given you
and I said well actually yes the girls have got two laptops
He said well have you thought about having those analyzed?
Within three days. He found a folder within the laptop and on there was
Project Marriage Walk. Project Marriage Walk? Yeah.
That was his plan and that was his plan
Yeah, he'd been planning this for a while
absolutely
So there you were say
List of the properties and
Assets of just under 400 million
With him as a legal and beneficial owner
And he was saying he was penniless, and he was saying he was penniless yes
Five years after Michelle's crusade began and her case was a mess
She spent millions on an army of lawyers and private investigators, and she was convinced Scott was hiding money
They're in
Not you.
One of the investigators Michelle hired was Dian Davis
Dian arranged for an undercover team to follow Scott
He almost looks as if he thinks he's under surveillance
He always had huge wads
of banknotes
I don't know the denomination and so whenever he actually got that near his wallet. You could actually see the bulge
And the color of 50 pound notes
Oh look at that now. It's on the video there. You can see that. He's just taken a a fairly substantial wedge
of 50 pound notes there the courts
Perpetually allowed him to continue to be very telling the truth for years
Until eventually a sensible judge said will you go into prison, but unfortunately the same sensible judge,
Allowed him out again without telling us anything, which doesn't make him quite so sensible
He never talked? No. and one has to ask why?
That's a big question really I wouldn't want to go to prison
Scott served three months of a six-month sentence. When he came out, he caught the bus home
As for Michele, she borrowed yet more money and hired yet more lawyers
With her fight
The judge at the final hearing said Scott had hidden assets
But as hard as he tried the judge couldn't locate the hundreds of millions Michele maintained existed
When you walked away from court. How did you feel?
I felt devastated.
The court awarded you 26 million
But that wasn't enough as far as you're concerned. No. It wasn't what was actually in the estate
The judge said that
That I would probably never get paid
He was awarded you the money nevertheless yes
So
But knowing you'd probably never fight
So what is the point of court proceedings?
I had to fight tooth and nail for seven years in the family courts to have an award which was ignored
Please tell me how that's justice
For 8 long years, Scott started his story that he had no money
Do i have your word that you are on your own at the moment?
Yes, I am on my own at the moment.
Then one day, he called Michelle with an extraordinary offer
For a family torn apart by divorce the phone call represented the last chance for two parents to end their war
But Scott and Michelle never settled and they never spoke to each other again
It's emerged a man who died after falling from a fourth floor penthouse?
Onto a set of railings in Maryland on Monday was the property tycoon
Scott Young
Scott's tragic death remains shrouded in mystery
At the inquest the coroner recorded an open verdict saying there was no evidence of an accident
this case has been screaming fraud from day one
And now implicated in that is probably a murder
There are a number of theories about why Scott died, but it's widely believed that his death was connected to the way
He'd apparently been making his money
Except that in later years Scott may have been money laundering for his Russian business partners and was caught up in a web of
criminality
It certainly would explain why he refused to disclose his finances to the court, and why he was prepared to go to prison
It may not have been all his own money
This world is huge like world. Of course Scott did eventually offer Michele 30 million pounds in the phone call
Are there are new claims that the hundreds of millions she spent all these years chasing never actually existed
Well we'll soon see if it's another stitch stitch up its called shadow courts
The stop stairs has made Michelle's pursuit of the money even difficult
11 years all
She has far from giving up to pursue... look, they have no, look. yeah
Recently she discovered Scott had a life insurance policy
It was taken out long before they separated and Michelle is a beneficiary
unprepared for them whatever it takes, and I'm here to win the war and I will
She's having to go to court to distort the money into an auditor
I tell you what could be interesting if we found out who the witnesses and what evidence they've got that
Yeah, that's exactly exactly. Bye.
Michelle has always maintained her fight isn't just about her case
These days she's immersed herself in what she sees as a bigger battle, and I have to say there is major injustice
happening to Founders Day in and out
And I'm campaigning for these people to have justice okay. I will read all about
Yes
My name is Michelle young I have my own foundation
Where mainly women and children are being left destitute by the family courts. It is atrocious. They've been sanctioned
Imprisoned with gagging orders after they've stolen their children the case is it's women and children through the family cause
Who are losing their children never seen their children again? Could you pass this to all the taxi-driver?
To this day Michelle has never received the 26 million pounds she was awarded
Though she did receive three hundred thousand pounds from Scott's life insurance policy
As for the future the seventeen million pounds of cropsy debts still hang over her