Metro

$88M Central Park West apartment not being used by Russian billionaire’s daughter, as buyer had claimed: suit

(AP)

(Bauergriffinonline.com)

WHOA, DADDY! The estranged wife of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev (above left) says his claim that an $88 million pad at 15 Central Park West (above) was for “student” daughter Ekaterina (above right) is a ploy to hide assets from divorce lawyers. (
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Don’t expect any swanky sorority parties at what’s been billed as the world’s priciest dorm room — the $88 million Central Park West apartment isn’t actually for student housing, a new lawsuit claims.

The estranged wife of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev — who made headlines earlier this year when he paid the record sum for the 6,700-square-foot pad — says the Russian fertilizer king was full of it when he claimed he bought the apartment for their daughter Ekaterina to live in while she attends school in New York.

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“She does not attend school in New York,” Elena Rybolovleva said in papers filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court. And if she did, said Rybolovleva’s lawyer, David Newman, she would stay in slightly more modest digs.

“That apartment is large enough to house her whole undergraduate class if she goes to school here,” Newman said.

The suit contends Rybolovlev — ranked the 100th-richest man in the world by Forbes — bought the posh pad in a failed bid to hide his assets from his wife of 24 years.

The jig was up late last year, when it was reported that Rybolovlev was buying the apartment from Joan Weill — the wife of former Citigroup head Sanford Weill — for $88 million. It’s the highest price ever paid for a New York residence. It’s also not the only record-shattering price Rybolovlev has paid since the mom of his two kids filed for divorce in 2008.

He shelled out $95 million to buy Donald Trump’s old home in Palm Beach, leading his wife to get a court order barring him from doing anything with the property and a court order freezing his assets in Geneva.

That order apparently hasn’t held — Newman said Rybolovlev has been on “a spending spree” that included buying part of a soccer team in Monaco.

The Day Pitney lawyer said the mogul’s contention that he was just being generous with their daughter doesn’t pass the “smell test” for a few reasons, including that he bought the property through “a sham entity” in order to keep his identity and actions secret. He also said his client and her husband had looked into buying an apartment in the same building at 15 Central Park West as a pied-à-terre back in 2008.

The suit charges he bought the apartment with “the specific intent of hiding and diverting his personal interest in the property.”

The 10-bedroom apartment with the 2,000-square-foot wraparound terrace represents a mere fraction of Rybolovlev’s wealth, which is estimated at over $9 billion.

A lawyer for Rybolovlev did not return a call for comment.