Michael Polsky and Maya Polsky divorced after 32 years, 5 months of marriage. The settlement was reportedly about $184M. See the full timeline.
Figures are reported estimates. Last updated Oct 2026.
The energy entrepreneur's divorce was one of the largest in Illinois history.
Michael Polsky and Maya Polsky married on 28 June 1975 in Kiev, in what was then the Soviet Union, and emigrated to the United States in 1976 with about $500 to their name. Michael, an engineer, went on to build energy businesses in the Chicago area, including Invenergy, a developer of wind, solar and gas power. Maya raised the couple's children. Their divorce, heard in Cook County, Illinois, became one of the best-known cases of its kind in the United States because of the size of the award to the wife.
The Polskys' fortune came from independent power. Michael Polsky built and ran energy companies that developed power plants and later renewable energy projects, and Invenergy, the company that features in the court record, grew into one of the largest privately held clean energy developers in the United States. The court valued the marital estate at about $340 million in October 2006. That figure included the value of Michael's stake in the family of energy companies, which meant much of the case turned on valuing a privately held business.
The couple married in 1975 and arrived in the United States the next year. Maya filed for dissolution, and on 3 October 2006 Cook County Circuit Judge William Boyd issued a judgment dividing the marital estate equally, with Maya's share reported at $176 million. After both spouses asked for reconsideration, each seeking a better result, the judge amended the judgment on 4 June 2007, raising the estate to roughly $367 million and Maya's share to about $184 million. Both sides then appealed, and an Illinois appellate court later ruled on the dispute.
This was a court-ordered division rather than a negotiated settlement. The October 2006 judgment valued the marital estate at $339,645,805 and divided it 50-50. The amended June 2007 judgment raised the estate to about $367 million, giving Maya roughly $183 million to $184 million, which the American Bar Association Journal described as possibly a record for a wife's award in a US divorce. The court ordered the assets to be liquidated, with 9 per cent interest running on the judgment amount while that happened.
Illinois is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state, which means judges divide marital property fairly rather than automatically in half. Judge Boyd nonetheless chose an equal division, reportedly because Maya had raised the couple's children while Michael built the businesses. Michael argued on appeal that a 50-50 split was inequitable given his financial contributions, but the appellate court upheld the division. The size of the award therefore reflected the value of the estate and the court's view that a homemaker's contribution deserved equal weight.
The divorce raised unusual business questions because much of the marital estate was tied up in Invenergy and related holdings. On appeal, Michael argued that the estate should be reduced to reflect liabilities under Invenergy's phantom rights plan and that he should not bear all the costs of liquidating assets; the appellate court affirmed the property division, upheld the post-judgment interest but ruled that interest on the amount added in June 2007 should run from that date. Maya's cross-appeal, which sought $18.8 million of $38.6 million Invenergy received from a financing transaction, was rejected.
At the time of the 2006 ruling the Polsky award was described as the largest divorce award in the United States, and the 2007 increase to $184 million reinforced that status. It has since been surpassed by settlements such as Harold Hamm's roughly $975 million in 2014 and, by media estimate, Mel Gibson's reported $425 million in 2011. It remains a landmark of Illinois family law as a case in which a court treated a homemaker's contribution as equal to the spouse's business success.
The couple arrived in the United States in 1976 with about $500 and no business connections. The award rose by around $8 million after both spouses asked the judge to reconsider, each hoping for a better result. The case also produced a published Illinois appellate opinion covering the division of a closely held business, post-judgment interest and the treatment of financing proceeds in a divorce.
Maya Polsky's reported settlement was about $184 million.
They married in 1975 and divorced in 2007, a marriage of roughly 32 years.
No prenuptial agreement was reported.
Yes, the family is reported to include 3 children.
Reported assets include: Cash, real estate, investment holdings.
Illinois is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state, which means judges divide marital property fairly rather than automatically in half. Judge Boyd nonetheless chose an equal division, reportedly because Maya had raised the couple's children while Michael built the businesses.