Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has to pay $53 million for a French villa he does not own.
A court has ruled that Prokhorov must forfeit the 10 percent deposit he put down on a $527 million villa in southern France because he never completed the deal he made in July 2008 with the widow of banker Edmond Safra, according to BusinessWeek.com. Under French law, the deposit was forfeited when Russia’s second richest man -- worth an estimated $19.9 billion -- did not sign the final contract by a Dec. 15, 2008, deadline.
The court in Nice, France, also ordered that Societe Fonciere du Treho, which Prokhorov controls, pay Lily Safra 1.5 million euros, or more than $2 million, in damages plus 30,000 euros, or $40,574, in court costs. Prokorov also was ordered to personally pay 15,000 euros, or almost $20,900, in court costs.
“The law has been applied and justice has prevailed,” Safra said in a statement. BusinessWeek.com reported that Safra will give most of the money to 10 charities in France, Israel, Rwanda, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Villa Leopolda is a 20-acre estate with views of the bay at Villefranche and the Mediterranean Sea. He agreed to buy the estate at the end of a decade-long boom in prices for property along the coastline from east of Marseilles to the Italian border.
The Paris-based attorney for Prokhorov said Prokhorov did not complete the sale because the price had changed. Prokhorov, 44, filed a lawsuit in January 2009 asking that the deposit held in escrow be returned to him.
Prokhorov and the Societe Fonciere du Treho will appeal, according to an attorney.
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