A stockbroker dubbed Britain's Warren Buffet is embroiled in a bitter legal case against his former partner of 13 years who he accuses of stealing from him.
Terry Smith, the son of a east London truck driver, is worth an estimated £300 million and is recognised as a master stock picker.
Smith, 68, who is based in Mauritius, launched Fundsmith on November 1, 2010 and according to Hargreves Lansdown, an investor who put £10,000 into the fund at the time would have seen their stake rise to more than £62,000.
However, Smith is involved in a legal battle with Teresa de Freitas, 47, with whom he had a relationship for 13 years.
He has eight legal claims against Ms de Freitas, while she was responded with four cases of her own.
Clients have invested more than £28bn in the fund controlled by the financial guru.
Multi-millionaire fund manager Terry Smith, 68, left, is involved in a legal dispute with his former partner Teresa de Freitas, 47, with whom he had a relationship for 13 years.
According to The Guardian, Mr Smith claims Ms de Freitas embezzled money from a joint bank account which the couple used. He also accuses Ms de Freitas of stealing a number of items from the house, including power tools and a designer coffee machine.
Ms de Freitas strongly denies all allegations of impropriety and claims she is being 'victimised for having left a powerful and rich man'.
One of the central parts of the dispute involves Ms de Freitas' daughter, whom Mr Smith wished to adopt. He is not the biological father of the girl.
Mr Smith, left, first met Ms de Freitas in 2005 when they both worked for stockbroker Collins Stewart. They embarked on a relationship two years later and moved to Mauritius in 2014
Ms de Freitas, who is a Guyanese native, told a local newspaper: 'Both my daughter and I have been very affected by these events. Starting with my daughter, it was a traumatic experience to discover that the man who was the main male figure in her daily life was capable of such actions, depriving her of her home, her clothes and her toys, the car she was using to get to school and finally, and mostly, responsible for causing so much pain and fear to her mother.'
