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Arnall “has apparently not kept up with the facts regarding the falling price of oil and its impact” on Hamm’s Continental shares, his lawyers said in a Dec. 22 state court filing in Oklahoma City in his appeal of the divorce decree. “Never before in Oklahoma history has a litigant claimed to need almost $300 million just to get by while an appeal is pending.”

Hamm claims the value of his stake in Continental, the company credited with pioneering shale drilling in the Bakken oil basin of North Dakota and Montana, has dropped to “just over $9.4 billion.” Arnall claims the oilman is still worth about $18 billion, taking all his holdings into account.

‘A Mystery’

“Where the other half of the alleged $18 billion estate” might be lurking is “a mystery,” Hamm said in the filing. He said he “is going to have to borrow money in order to pay this judgment to petitioner; there is no reason she cannot borrow money to finance her appeal” of a judgment in her favor.

Divorce attorneys called the November alimony ruling a victory for Hamm, expressing surprise that a billionaire’s spouse didn’t get as much as 30 per cent of the couple’s assets when the marriage was dissolved.

The judge gave Arnall cash in lieu of most property and based her share primarily on Continental’s stock price, which he pegged at $116.12 a share to account for a two-to-one stock split that occurred during the divorce trial.

Hamm got to keep all the couple’s Continental shares, as the judge ruled that he founded the company before the couple married in 1988.