After weeks of speculation, it's finally been revealed that Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the 22-year-old daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, is the purchaser of ex-Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill's penthouse at 15 Central Park West in New York.
Forbes reports that Rybolovleva paid the full $88 million sticker price, an unusual move given the soft housing market and a major boon for Weill, who promised to donate proceeds from the sale of the Manhattan apartment to charity.
Almost nothing is known about Rybolovleva except that she's a student at a U.S. university, was born in Moscow, and has been a resident of Monaco and Switzerland for the past 15 years. She's also an avid horseback rider and someone (we're guessing it's not her) took the initiative to start a Facebook page in her name this morning.
Far more interesting is the life of Ekaterina's father, who presumably bankrolled the pricey pad.
Dmitry is a business magnate who got his start in science, and he owns a French football team. Oh yeah, and he was once tossed in jail for a year after being accused of participating in a murder plot.
Rybolovlev trained as a doctor, but soon entered the world of business and made a killing acquiring state-owned industrial assets in the 1990s.
Until recently, he was a major shareholder in potash fertilizer producer Uralkali, earning him the title of "potash king" and contributing to his estimated $9.5 billion fortune
.
In 1996, Rybolovlev was accused of participating in a plot to kill a business partner, but was acquitted at trial after spending 11 months in jail.
He's lived in Geneva since 1995, but little is known about his home there.
He's in the midst of a dirty divorce from his wife of 23 years, with whom he has two daughters. His wife accused him of "serial infidelity," and the ordeal could cost him upwards of $6 billion.