A luxury penthouse at Extell Development’s One57 sold at auction for a record $36 million.
The buyer, whose identity is unknown, was one of five bidders vying for the apartment on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
The 79th-floor condominium belonged to Nigerian billionaire Kola Aluko, who defaulted on a $35.3 million mortgage on the pad. Aluko is also being investigated for money laundering in Nigeria and Europe.
Aluko’s lenders initially planned the foreclosure auction for July, but the sale was postponed after a creditor said the billionaire owed $83 million for gasoline and jet fuel. The pad was subsequently listed for $39 million — about $13 million less than Aluko paid for the 6,240-square-foot unit in 2014.
The apartment was put back on the auction block last month.[Bloomberg] — E.B. Solomont