Berezovsky to pay Abramovich $56M in legal costs

LONDON -- A British court has ordered self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky to pay 35 million pounds ($56 million) in legal costs to fellow Russian Roman Abramovich after losing a lawsuit against him.

Berezovsky waged a multimillion-dollar legal battle against Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, claiming that he was cheated out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft.

Berezovsky, a former Kremlin power broker who sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000s, argued that Abramovich blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he fell out with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Judge Elizabeth Gloster threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness.

Neither man was in court Friday as the costs were settled.