Divorces are always a little messy. They tend to be especially harsh when there is money involved. That is the lesson that is being learned the hard way by the CEO of electronic retail giant Best Buy.

Hubert Joly, who has lead Best Buy to a resurgence and accompanying increases in profit, reportedly sold 20% of his stake in the company recently. What is he reason behind the sudden dumping of such valuable stock, you ask? The answer lies with the former Mrs. Joly who received a massive divorce settlement.

The company cleared the air via a statement: “This sale reflects only one thing — Mr. Joly has recently gone through a divorce and needs to sell a portion of his holdings in order to cover the costs of that unfortunate event.”

Joly sold a hefty 451,153 shares in the company, which totaled a whooping $16.7 million. After paying $6.3 to exercise stock options Joly was left with just over $10 million to hand over to his ex-wife.

While $16.7 million is a lot of money for anyone to lose, Joly is in a good position to earn it back; after all, he’s not just any Joe Schmo with a 5-figure paycheck and a mortgage. Since assuming control of Best Buy in August of 2012 the price of shares in the company have tripled after some initial lag. If that trend continues Joly should recover nicely.

[Image via The Street]