22-Year-Old Daughter of Infamous Russian Billionaire Pays Record $88 Million for This NYC Penthouse

Earlier this year, ex-Citigroup chairman Sanford Weill decided that he was going to try to sell his 6,744-sq-ft NYC penthouse for an unbelievable $88 million. Not surprisingly, investors didn't exactly rush to make offers. In fact, very few people thought Weill was going to be able to pull off the multimillion dollar sale.

And just when it seemed like Weill's attempts to get the apartment off his hands were going nowhere--even after promising to donate all the money to charity--he found a buyer: Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the 22-year-old daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitriy Rybolovlev.

Yes, that Dmitriy Rybolovlev.

"Murder? What Murder?"

He is the 93rd richest man in the world (with a net worth of $9.5 billion). He served 11 months in jail for allegedly ordering the murder of another businessman (he was later acquitted because of lack of evidence). The "fertilizer kingpin" famously made his wealth buying industrial concerns in the early 1990s during Russia’s "wildly unregulated privatization period.” Oh, yeah, just in case his name doesn't ring any bells, he's the Russian mogul who took Donald Trump to the cleaners.

Wait, what was that about Donald Trump?

In May 2008, Rybolovlev purchased Trump’s Palm Beach mansion, Maison de L’Amitie. He paid $95 million in cash, which was much less than what Trump was asking ($25 million less, to be precise). Apparently, the final transaction between the the Donald the Fertilizer Kingpin resulted in Trump making the largest single residence price concession of all time.

And now it would seem that Rybolovlev's daughter is interested in making her own multimillion dollar real estate investment.

“According to a source familiar with the sale, she paid the full asking price of $88 million, setting a record for highest individual transaction in New York City history,” reports Forbes. Furthermore, because she is studying at an undisclosed U.S. university, Rybolovlev's daughter will only be using her new flat when she visits New York.

Wait a minute. She paid full price for a condo that she will only see every once in a while? OK, maybe she's not as shrewd as her father. Of course, it's also very likely that she had nothing to do with the actual sale and her father simply bought her the penthouse as a gift.

Here is the official statement from her representatives (because, apparently, billionaire's 22-year old daughters have representatives):

A company associated with Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of a well-known businessman Dmitriy Rybolovlev, has signed a contract to purchase an apartment at 15 Central Park West, New York. The apartment is a condominium currently owned by the Sanford Weill Family.

Ms. Rybolovleva is currently studying at a US university. She plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York. Ms. Rybolovleva was born in Russia, is a resident of Monaco and has resided in Monaco and Switzerland for the past 15 years.”

The penthouse includes 10 rooms (4 of which are bedrooms), multiple terraces and 2 wood burning fireplaces.

“This sale is an outlier. It works out to be about $13,000 per sq. foot, the highest on record, for anything, that has ever occurred,” says Jonathan Miller, chief executive of real estate appraiser Miller Samuel, “What is ironic is that when Sandy Weill bought it for less than half this amount, he paid the highest price per sq foot to date in that building, around, $6,400 per sq. foot. He is again setting a record.”

The previous New York City record had been set back before the market crash of 2007 when investor Christopher Flowers paid $53 million for a New York townhouse, according to Forbes. He resold the property on August 15 for just over $36 million.

Check out these photos of Ekaterina Rybolovleva's sweet, new digs:

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(h/t The New York Observer, Architectural Design)