PARIS, February 5 Villa of fugitive Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky » Chateau de la Garoupe,” confiscated in 2015, was purchased by Ukrainian billionaire and co-founder of the WhatsApp messenger Jan Koum, reports Nice Matin.
The French agency managing the confiscated property (Agrasc) has not announced the amount of the transaction or the identity of the buyer. However, according to media reports, it was Koum, who had been living in the United States since the age of 16, who purchased a luxurious villa in favor of the French state, to which he paid almost 65 million euros.
«The American billionaire, whose huge yacht Moonrise cruised along the Cote d'Azur all summer, transferred about 65 million euros, despite the fact that, according to recent estimates, the value of the Chateau de la Garoupe villa is at least 158 million euros» , — reported the media. The publication recalls that the deal to sell WhatsApp to Facebook* in 2017 brought the 47-year-old businessman $19 billion, and his fortune today is estimated at 14 billion.
The luxury villa on the Cote d'Azur was seized in 2015 — two years after Berezovsky's death. The Cap d'Antibes residence, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, also includes five servants' buildings and a 10-hectare landscaped park with a swimming pool, jacuzzi and tennis court.
Berezovsky's villa, as well as the bell tower next to it, were confiscated by French authorities as part of a money laundering case involving the investment company Sifi and its manager Jean-Louis Borde, Berezovsky's frontman. It is noted that, using the company's accounts, Berezovsky acquired the Château de la Garoupe for 8.4 million euros in 1996, and a year later the Bell Tower de la Garoupe for 13.5 million euros.
* Meta activities (social networks Facebook and Instagram) is banned in Russia as extremist