Wife wins battle for billion pound hedge fund As a former BP executive at just 27, Miss Ambrosiadou took the role as chief executive at the fund while Dr Coward, a mathematician and former star trader at Goldman Sachs, was responsible for developing IT systems and was the chairman at Ikos. But in 2009 Dr Coward resigned from Ikos after their "relationship turned toxic." The 55-year-old claimed as he created the software Ikos used, computer codes which Ikos used to trade in global markets, he owned the software and therefore the fortune of the fund should be shared. But judges ruled against him and said because he developed the software while at Ikos it was the intellectual property of the company, run by his estranged wife. These codes, described as the "bedrock" of the billion pound hedge fund Ikos developed into, ended up being at the centre of a four year dispute between the pair and saw a judge criticising the deep animosity between them. Throughout the three week trial at London's High Court Miss Ambrosiadou, 54, insisted the company was her business and her wealth. Mrs Justice Asplin, who handed down the ruling at the High Court, criticised the bitterness between the pair and said neither was an "entirely satisfactory" witness. She said: "Unfortunately, their approach to giving evidence was tainted by their obvious and deep animosity and the extremely close correlation between their business and their personal affairs." Mrs Justice Asplin described Miss Ambrosiadou as evasive and prone to making speeches to avoid answering questions, while she branded Dr Coward's approach to giving evidence as at times "cavalier." Mrs Justice Asplin said the software, which creates codes to trade in markets around the world and has been described as the "essential bedrock of the business," was owned by the company as it was used and treated as partnership property. The pair co-founded Ikos asset management in 1992 and they moved the company to Cyprus in 2004. At the end of 2012 Ikos, which means "home" in Ms Ambrosiadou's native Greek, was worth around £1 billion. The row over Ikos has been dogged by allegations, including that Ms Ambrosiadou hired private investigators to spy on her former husband and Dr Coward copied the software to set up a new venture. The bitter divorce row has led to dozens of legal actions filed in Britain, Cyprus and Monaco. In January Dr Coward agreed to pay his estranged wife - who was once reported to be Britain's highest paid woman - £50,000 in damages after he sent newspapers copies of court documents relating to personal and family matters, including their son. Ms Ambrosiadou, who has previously bought a £60 million super yacht called the Maltese Falcon, gave the money to a Greek charity for orphans. The pair met at Cambridge University in the 1970s when Dr Coward achieved at PhD in Maths and Ms Ambrosiadou was studying chemical engineering. After the case Ms Ambrosiadou released a statement which said: "Our investors will be very pleased with this result because it secures the future of their investment with Ikos. In addition to confirming the ownership of the intellectual property, this ruling vindicates Ikos's defence of its lawful rights to its intellectual property and strengthens the case for an overhaul of the European laws regarding protection of intellectual property.