Yarrum
Hero Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2007
- Messages
- 958
- Reaction score
- 15
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
- Detector(s) used
- Jackeroo, BH Landstar
- #1
Thread Owner
A LUMP sum of $60 million will buy a sumptuous mansion on the French Riviera. Russia's richest man lost that amount - and a lot of face - yesterday when a court refused to return his deposit on the grandest villa of them all.
Mikhail Prokhorov, 44, a playboy-magnate worth nearly $17 billion, was told that he could not reclaim the funds that he put down on the Villa Leopolda, a clifftop property that he promised to buy in 2008. He backed out of the record sale, for $587 million, early last year after the recession struck the minerals and metals business on which his fortune is based.
The court in Nice delivered its ruling on the day that President Medvedev arrived for a state visit in Paris to celebrate a new era of Franco-Russian friendship.
The decision was the second blow by French justice against Mr Prokhorov, who also owns two chalets in the Alpine resort of Courchevel. In January 2007 he was arrested and detained for four days on suspicion of flying in prostitutes for a party in the properties. He was released without charge but Russian media depicted the incident as a deliberate insult against Russia.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
The contracted sale of the villa, a Belle Epoque complex built for King Leopold II of the Belgians, was by far the highest price agreed for a house anywhere in the world. It marked the zenith of the real-estate follies among competing oligarchs.
The deposit is to remain in the hands of the owner, Lily Safra, 71, the widow of Edmond Safra, the banker billionaire who was murdered by his male nurse in Monaco in 1999. The court also awarded Mrs Safra $2.3 million in damages. She had been forced to lay off the 27 guards, gardeners, servants and cooks at the villa. They have since been re-engaged.
Mrs Safra said that she would donate the money to ten charities, including $1.5 million each for neuroscience research at King's College London and Imperial College London. "By transforming the deposit into an act of giving I would like to encourage all who can do so to support medical research, patient care, education and other humanitarian causes," she said.
The collapse of the sale helped to drive a crash in premium properties on the Cote d'Azur. Prices slumped last year to just a tenth of that reached in the giddy days of the boom. Although the market has picked up again, the cream-coloured Villa Leopolda, set among cypress trees and overlooking Cap Ferrat, is still worth only a fraction of what Mr Prokhorov offered.
The Russian had set his heart on the villa five years ago. Mrs Safra refused to sell but he persisted, raising his offers recklessly. Under French law, deposits are not returned when the purchaser cancels a promise of purchase.
Mr Prokhorov's lawyers argued in court in December that he had not been allowed the statutory week's cooling-off period. The court rejected this because the property had been bought by a company controlled by Mr Prokhorov. He has yet to decide whether to appeal against the decision.
The Times
Mikhail Prokhorov, 44, a playboy-magnate worth nearly $17 billion, was told that he could not reclaim the funds that he put down on the Villa Leopolda, a clifftop property that he promised to buy in 2008. He backed out of the record sale, for $587 million, early last year after the recession struck the minerals and metals business on which his fortune is based.
The court in Nice delivered its ruling on the day that President Medvedev arrived for a state visit in Paris to celebrate a new era of Franco-Russian friendship.
The decision was the second blow by French justice against Mr Prokhorov, who also owns two chalets in the Alpine resort of Courchevel. In January 2007 he was arrested and detained for four days on suspicion of flying in prostitutes for a party in the properties. He was released without charge but Russian media depicted the incident as a deliberate insult against Russia.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
The contracted sale of the villa, a Belle Epoque complex built for King Leopold II of the Belgians, was by far the highest price agreed for a house anywhere in the world. It marked the zenith of the real-estate follies among competing oligarchs.
The deposit is to remain in the hands of the owner, Lily Safra, 71, the widow of Edmond Safra, the banker billionaire who was murdered by his male nurse in Monaco in 1999. The court also awarded Mrs Safra $2.3 million in damages. She had been forced to lay off the 27 guards, gardeners, servants and cooks at the villa. They have since been re-engaged.
Mrs Safra said that she would donate the money to ten charities, including $1.5 million each for neuroscience research at King's College London and Imperial College London. "By transforming the deposit into an act of giving I would like to encourage all who can do so to support medical research, patient care, education and other humanitarian causes," she said.
The collapse of the sale helped to drive a crash in premium properties on the Cote d'Azur. Prices slumped last year to just a tenth of that reached in the giddy days of the boom. Although the market has picked up again, the cream-coloured Villa Leopolda, set among cypress trees and overlooking Cap Ferrat, is still worth only a fraction of what Mr Prokhorov offered.
The Russian had set his heart on the villa five years ago. Mrs Safra refused to sell but he persisted, raising his offers recklessly. Under French law, deposits are not returned when the purchaser cancels a promise of purchase.
Mr Prokhorov's lawyers argued in court in December that he had not been allowed the statutory week's cooling-off period. The court rejected this because the property had been bought by a company controlled by Mr Prokhorov. He has yet to decide whether to appeal against the decision.
The Times
