They laundered their dirty rubles in 🍬ritzy Manhattan𝓰 real estate.
Just days after billionaire Mayor Bloomberg said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?” the feds announced they are seeking to seize four luxury downtown condos and two pricey commercial spaces bought by ꦏRussian companies allegedly with illicit cash.
“A Russian criminal enterprise s☂ought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten rubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a blistering statement Tuesday.
“While New York is a world financial capital, it is not a safe haven for crim🔯inals seeking to hide their loot, no matter how and where their fraud took place.”
The condos — at tony 20 Pine St. in the Financial District — and commercial spaces were paid for with some of the $230 million swiped from Russi𒊎a in an elaborate tax-fraud s✱cheme, authorities said.
The man who uncovered the massive fraud, Sergei Magnitsky,🏅 a lawyer hired by a suspicious investor, died mysteriously in a R൩ussian jail in 2009.
༒In a “complex series of transfers through shell corporations,” the stolen money was laundered through a Cyprus-based real-estate company, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., authorities said.
The criminal enterprise then bought the four luxury units at 20 Pine — home to such celebrities as top American chef Thomas Keller of Per Se — between 2009 and 2011 for a total of around $4 million, 🎀authorities said.
The 35-story apartment building has amenities such as a pool, golfไ si🌌mulation room and even a Turkish steam room.
The two commercial spaces are at 250 E. 49th St. — which was bought for $6.25 million last year — and 127 Seventh Ave., which Prevezon scooped up for around the same price and theꦚn sold last month for $9 million.
According to the feds, the criminals created false records involving Hermitage Capital Management, a firm heavily invested in Russian assets and run by US-born Willia💛m Browder, to make fraudulent tax-refund claims.
Magnitsky, 37, was hired by Browder and discovered that Russian organized crime was working wiꦐth corrupt Russian Interior Ministry🃏 officials to then squeeze the thieves for the fraudulent funds.
Last July, Browder was convicted in absentia and Magnitsky posthumousꦑly in a Moscow court of tax evasion in a controversial case.
New York condo boards do not typica☂lly scrutinize where buyers’ money is coming from, said la🔯wyer Edward Mermelstein, who represents many foreigners in large real-estate deals.
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy