A Russian oligarch who owns a luxury apartment in the same Manhattan mansion as Disney boss Bob Iger rented the unit just days before the US government allowed it, The Post has learned.
Alexey Kuzmichev – co-founder of the Moscow-based Alfa Group conglomerate, which has been accused of helping finance Vladimir Putin’s war on neighboring Ukraine – bought four floors in the seven-story Atterbury Mansion at 33 E. 74th for $42.7 million in 2016.
Kuzmichev, 60, has been trying to sell his 10,088 quadruplex for $41 million but has not found a buyer.
It is asking $70,000 a month in rent in 2019. An American family rented the unit for an undisclosed price two years ago.
After their lease expired, they chose to renew it in early August, sources told The Post — before its assets were frozen on Aug. 11.
That day, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Kuzmichev and three other oligarchs – Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan – who founded the Alfa Group following damning reports that Alfa Bank’s subsidiary was helping Putin’s war machine.
Alexey Kuzmichev, right, and Israel Englander in 2014. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control cleared Kuzmichev and two other oligarchs. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
The men said they were “apolitical” and denied close ties to Putin.
Kuzmichev’s 33-foot-wide townhouse, built in 1901, is divided into just two apartments. Iger and his partner, Willow Bay, Dean of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, bought the penthouse above Kuzmichev for $25.45 million in 2017, the Post exclusively reported.
The manse was designed by renowned architect Grosvenor Atterbury and was originally built for banker Julian Wainwright Robbins and his wife Sarah, niece of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Kuzmichev’s five-bedroom, five-bathroom, three-powder-room residence contains the mansion’s original ballroom, with 20-foot ceilings. It now serves as a 30-by-50-foot living room.
Kuzmichev, 60, has been trying to sell his 10,088 quadruplex for $41 million at the 33 E. 74th St. mansion. this but did not find a buyer. Google Street View
Other luxurious design details include original stained glass, wide white oak plank flooring and lots of marble.
Private and public elevator service for each floor. Additionally, there is a chef’s kitchen and a formal dining room that seats 40 people. The living room floor is equipped with 12-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling arched windows, and there is a large private terrace off the first floor.
Kuzmichev has also been a major benefactor of the New York art scene. Together with his partner, Svetlana Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, they are on the Chairman’s Council at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2021-2022.
The Met did not return calls about its ties to the sanctioned oligarch — and whether or not it will return Kuzmichev’s allegedly tainted donation.
Kuzmichev and his wife Svetalna Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya have also been major benefactors in the New York art scene. Getty Images
The unregulated art market has become a useful way for oligarchs and criminals to launder money — and evade sanctions. In addition, toxic philanthropy is how Russian oligarchs and other international kleptocrats clean their reputations, as well as their money, anti-corruption activists say.
Kuzmichev joined the Soviet army and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a young man in the late 1980s. He and his three Alfa-Bank co-founders all serve on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium, which is one of Russia’s largest financial and investment conglomerates, according to the DOJ.
They have also been banned by Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and the UK. They stepped down from the board of directors but retained a financial interest in Alfa Bank’s parent company.
“Russia’s wealthy elite should not abuse their notion that they can conduct business as usual while the Kremlin wages war on the Ukrainian people,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement at the time.
Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya and French businessman Francois Pinault in Paris in 2016. Getty Images
“Our international coalition will continue to hold accountable those who enabled the unwarranted and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Adeyemo added.
A European Union report on the blocked individuals described Kuzmichev as “one of the most influential people in Russia. He has strong ties to the Russian president.”
It further noted that Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, runs a charity project, Alfa-Endo, financed by Alfa Bank and that Putin “appreciates Alfa Group’s loyalty to the Russian authorities by providing political assistance to Alfa Group’s foreign investment plans.”
The EU report goes on to state that Kuzmichev “actively supported materially or financially and benefited from Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the instability of Ukraine. He is also a prominent Russian businessman involved in an economic sector that provides a large source of income to the Government Russian Federation.”
The manse was designed by renowned architect Grosvenor Atterbury and was originally built for banker Julian Wainwright Robbins and his wife Sarah, niece of Cornelius Vanderbilt.REUTERS
French authorities seized two of his mega yachts – La Petite Ourse and La Petite Ourse II, worth a combined $98 million – in the South of France last year.
He sued and one of the ships was returned on the grounds that a ‘procedural error’ was made during the seizure. French customs were ordered to pay Kuzmichev 10,000 euros in compensation. Other cases are still pending.
EU sanctions prevent Kuzmichev from taking the yacht out of French territorial waters. However, his lawyer, Philippe Blanchetier, stated: “In[France[isallowedtomovearoundwhetherbyfootbyhorsebycarorbyboat”[ofFrance[heisallowedtomovearoundwhetherbyfootbyhorsebycarorbyboat”[Perancis[diadibenarkanbergeraksamaadadenganberjalankakidengankudadengankeretaataudenganbot”[ofFrance[heisallowedtomovearoundwhetherbyfootbyhorsebycarorbyboat”
Blanchetier did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
