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March 3, 2010
New Nets owner lost $54M on deposit for French Riviera mansion
The NY Post
By Charles Bremner
Apparently Atlantic Yards isn't the first misguided real estate deal made by the man who is on deck to enter into partnership on the megaproject and to purchase Bruce Ratner's flagging NJ Nets.
A lump sum of $53.7 million will buy a sumptuous mansion on the French Riviera. Russia's richest man lost that amount -- and a lot of face -- when a court refused to return his deposit on the grandest villa of them all.
Mikhail Prokhorov, 44, a playboy-magnate worth nearly $9 billion who last year purchased the New Jersey Nets, was told that he could not reclaim the funds that he put down on the Villa Leopolda, a cliff-top property that he promised to buy in 2008. He backed out of the record sale, for $529 million, early last year after the recession struck the minerals and metals business on which his fortune is based.
...
The decision was the second blow by French justice against 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 Moscow media depicted the incident as a deliberate insult against Russia.
NoLandGrab: Though Prokhorov is set to overpay for the privilege of owning a piece of the NBA, hard-core Nets fans are salivating at the prospect of an owner who has a history of tossing around buckets of cash.
Posted by lumi at March 3, 2010 5:25 AM