Earlier this year, we exclusively broke the story that Christen Ager-Hanssen was being sued by the ex-wife of sanctioned oligarch Kirill Shamlov, Jana Shamalova, whom he had promised to help with her divorce.
Despite claiming to be “Norway’s richest man”, Ager-Hanssen stole £1.1 million from Shamalova, taking £600,000 for his “services” in tracing her husband’s assets, and a further £500,000 to put on account for her legal representation.
Shamalova claims that Ager-Hanssen instructed her lawyers to do no further work on the case after two weeks, deliberately setting back her chances of succeeding against her former husband, who was also in a race to commence proceedings against her on more favourable terms back in Russia.
In newly released documents, Ager-Hanssen claims he did in-fact work on Shamalova’s divorce and that not only was the £600,000 “a non-refundable deposit and was fully earned by the Defendant in the discharge of the work done on behalf of the Claimant”, he actually claims he “has costs and fees for the hours expended and the work done in excess of the £1.1million.”
Our diminutive conman has now tried to threaten Shamalova, claiming she is liable for £500,000 in fees for a “leading KC” Ager-Hanssen claims to have instructed for her to deal with a child custody battle – although despite this activity allegedly occurring over two years ago, has yet to be billed by the KC. We can only assume Zafar Ali is frantically mocking up fake invoices for her while negotiating his cut if the scam comes off!
Ager-Hanssen claims to have “spent many hundreds of hours carrying out the necessary work… all of which is documented and can be disclosed in due course.” This may also help answer the question as to whether or not he can actually read or write.
So – he spent “hundreds of hours” on her case and definitely has all the documentation for it – but won’t send it to her…aka “trust me bro”. It’s typical of Ager-Hanssen to have stolen £1.1 million and still be pushing for a further £500,000!
Ager-Hanssen had initially instructed Grosvenor Law to represent him, obviously deciding this was serious enough to have a real lawyer representing him, rather than him being a ‘litigant in person’ which led to his bankruptcy and contempt of court charge. However, new filings this week suggest that Ager-Hanssen’s dodgy cheque for fees on account bounced and they have now filed to wind up the Custos Group company to get their fees back.
Of course, all of this legal drama now falls to new Custos Group CEO Jonas Versauskas, who also happens to be Ager-Hanssen’s driver, who was made the ‘director’ of various companies following the latter’s bankruptcy, which under British law forbids him from being a company director. Versauskas was made a director in September 2024, backdated to May.
We wonder if Versauskas knows that he’s liable for the £1.1 million debt or that Ager-Hanssen withdraw the instructed law firm that were dealing with it as well as personally being on the hook for Grosvenors fees. Poor Jonas is having to deal with all of this in between his Uber runs, where he tries to record Ager-Hanssen’s next victims.
Alternatively, Jonas, if you’re reading and want to tell us your side of the story, our DMs are open!
None of this sounds like the actions of a ‘billionaire’ or ‘legal mastermind’ but more the actions of a low-level confidence grifter. Those still paying for his ‘advice’ can’t say they haven’t been warned about him…
You can read the full ‘defence’ here: