today for the conclusion of the case The court defeat not only means that he has missed out on the 3.2billion he was seeking in damages from Mr Abramovich over claims that the Chelsea boss blackmailed and intimidated him into selling off his share of a Russian oil business for 800million, a fraction of its true worth of up to 4.25billion. It also means that he faces a legal bill asking him to pay the lion's share of the estimated 150million costs for bringing the case. Both sides assembled teams of Britain's best -- and most expensive -- legal brains and the bill was estimated to have risen by almost 50 per second for the four-month courtroom trial. Mr Abramovich's lawyers told the court they were worried that Mr Berezovsky had already started selling off his multi-million-pound property empire in an apparent attempt to hide his assets from them. The case centred on a claim that Mr Abramovich exploited Mr Berezovsky's  political connections to build his Sibneft oil business in Russia, but betrayed him after the latter fell out of favour with the Kremlin. Mr Berezovsky claimed Putin had personally threatened to jail him if he did not relinquish his stake in another business. An artist's sketch of Berezovsky, (far right), in the High Court, today shows him receiving the news that he has lost his damages claim against Abramovich Entourage: Abramovich (second right) is surrounded by his legal team and body guards as he leaves the High Court after