Feds Freeze Russian Oligarch's $42.5M UES Mansion: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The United States government has put a freeze on the assets of a Russian oligarch and seized the foreign billionaire's multi-million dollar Upper East Side mansion, according to reports.

Oleg Deripaska, a Russian energy and aluminum magnate with ties to Vladimir Putin, was hit with sanctions for his alleged involvement in crimes such as murder, money-laundering, bribery and racketeering, the New York Post first reported. In addition to ties with Putin, the industrialist is also close with Russian mob leaders, according to the post.

One of Deripaska's priciest assets in the United States is his Upper East Side mansion. The Russian used an LLC company to buy the five-story townhouse at 11 E. 64th St., located between Fifth and Madison avenues, for $42.5 million in 2008, according to public real estate records.

The oligarch has been investigated heavily by special counsel Robert Mueller for his ties to Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the Associated Press reported when a round sanctions were announced in April. The Treasury Department said Deripaska was accused of illegal wiretaps, extortion, racketeering, money laundering and even death threats against business rivals.

At the time, Deripaska's conglomerate Basic Element told the Assocaited Press that it was analyzing the sanctions with its lawyers. Deripaska, who Forbes estimates is worth about $3.3 bullion, also had a mansion in Washington D.C. frozen, the New York Post reported.

The Russian billionaire's has entered an agreement to let another oligarch's family live in the East 64th Street mansion while the property is frozen, the Post reported. Dasha Zhukova, the ex-wife of oligarch Roman Abramovich, and her children are reportedly moving into the property. Abramovich recently transferred six Upper East Side properties — including three contiguous townhouses that are being converted into a megamansion — worth $92.3 million to Zhukova, the New York Times first reported.

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