The saga of the sale of Villa Leopolda continues. Back in August the Villa Leopolda was reportedly sold for 500 million Euros. We later discovered that the sale price was in fact 365 million Euros and at that time the buyer’s name remained a secret, although we were hearing rumors that it was Mikhail Prokorov.
I thought that unlikely as Mr. Prokorov had previously sworn never to set foot in France again after his arrest for procuring prostitutes back in 2007. It later turned out he was paying the prostitues in Louis Vuitton bags and luxury goods, so the charges were dropped as no cash changed hands.
In February, we discovered that the buyer was indeed Prokorov, but he had been forced to back out of the sale and was requesting a refund of his 39 million Euro deposit. Which also put the sale price at 390 million. Under French law, a 10% deposit is required. This is no refundable under normal circumstances and this was upheld in a recent court ruling.
But, these are not normal circumstances – 39 million Euros being quite a lot of money – even to some one of Mr. Prokorov’s means – and it seems Mr. Prokorov’s lawyers have come up with a loophole that might be appropriate. The latest bit of gossip is that the matter is back in court, the issue relating to the right of prior acquisition by the French national land agency SAFER, who were apparently notified of a lower price on the property than was stated in the sale contract. For those of you unfamiliar with French laws, the state has the right to intervene in a sale of any property and purchase it for themselves at whatever the agreed price is. This is a ruse usually reserved for French Mayors to prevent sales that might go through that they might consider “not to be in the interests of the community,” in other words – the Mayor’s friends might want the property instead.
Anyway, SAFER normally only intervene in a sale purchase to grant right of first purchase to a farmer and have stated they have no interest in the property. But, they have also stated that the valuation they received was substantially different to that in the contract, which is not unusual when trying to avoid paying full taxes.
Lily Safra, the current owner, says there is no case to answer, and that the Russian billionaire is using an ‘absurd pretext’ in order to be released from the contract.
At the time the property was sold, it seems Ms. Safra was rather reluctant to sell it, and only agreed to do so after protracted negotiations with Prokhorov. Whilst a sale price of around 390 million would certainly seem a good reason to sell, it is also being reported that she was proposing to give all the proceeds to a medical charity. In the meantime, she and her domestic staff have quit the property, all the furniture has been removed and it now stands empty awaiting the outcome of the court case.
