Harold Hamm is an unlikely billionaire: the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers whose identity as a self-made man could just be his downfall in his impending³ divorce battle.

 

The oilman is in the second week of a divorce hearing from his wife of 25 years, Sue Ann, and experts say the only way he can avoid paying half of his assets - and possibly losing a controlling share of his company - is to argue that his fortune is the result of sheer dumb luck.

 

The amount divisible in the divorce settlement is $17 billion.

 

Legally, if Hamm can prove that the appreciation⁴ of the marital⁵ assets was passive, rather than an active attempt by him to increase his wealth, then they will remain his property.

 

'You have a piece of vacant land before you get married, a separate property. If you do nothing about it and by passive acts it increases [in value], for instance they build a railroad next door or a road, fine, it’s passive,' prominent New York divorce attorney Raoul Felder told Yahoo Finance.

 

'But if you make a victory garden on there or you build a house, it’s now active.'

 

In essence, for Hamm to keep the $17 billion in question, he would have to contradict the popular image of himself that he has projected for decades as an astute⁶ businessman and innovator⁷ and instead say he simply got lucky.

 

The analysis of Kenneth Button, an expert witness hired by Hamm's wife Sue Ann, was laid out in court testimony⁸ and in a document provided to Reuters by Oklahoma County Judge Howard Haralson. It is one of the first pieces of financial testimony to be released from the trial, which has been conducted mostly in secrecy⁹.

 

Unusually for a divorce case, Haralson has barred the public from the courtroom on most days and sealed most of the evidence. He says he is trying to protect shareholders¹⁰ in Hamm's Continental Resources from the release of confidential¹¹ business information.

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