And the Oligarch that paid Trump a record sum for a Mansion that he then tore down...
Prior to the Trump sale, which at the time was the highest price paid for any single-family home in the country, the most expensive home sold on Palm Beach had been an estate at 1236 S. Ocean Blvd. That property traded hands for $81.5 million earlier in 2008.
Throughout the divorce litigation, Rybovlovlev gave his wife's attorneys differing reasons for the mansion purchase, said David Newman, a partner with Sills, Cummis & Gross in New York.
At various times in court records, Rybolovlev said the house was for investment purposes, then said it would be for his children, or maybe an inheritance, or it might be used in connection with his daughter because she was an equestrian, according to Newman.
There's also the issue of Rybolovlev's marital status, "and whether he was trying to protect his assets in connection with a divorce-mode situation," said Newman, who represented Elena.
Newman said he found the whole deal curious: "It was out of the ordinary because of the uniqueness of the property, the speed of the transaction," and the fact that Newman's team never was able to uncover any evidence that Rybolovlev had performed any professional reviews of the property.
"If someone is paying $90-something million, more than anyone else has ever paid for a private residence, one would think they might look around and do a little due diligence, or even have an inspection," Newman said.
But Newman said his team never found any evidence Rybolovlev hired experts to weigh in on the property's condition as a residence -- or its value as a teardown -- before he bought the place.
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In addition to the mansion intrigue, Rybolovlev and Trump recently have drawn attention in another peculiar way.
Federal Aviation Administration records reviewed by the Palm Beach Post and other news outlets have tracked Rybolovlev's private plane to cities where Trump has traveled, during his campaign and into his presidency.
In October, for example, Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. Rybolovlev's plane arrived in that city an hour after the campaign event started.
A month later, FAA records show Rybolovlev's plane, an Airbus 319, also landed in Charlotte, N.C., 90 minutes before Trump's plane arrived. Trump was scheduled to host a campaign event there that day -- Nov. 3 -- five days before the presidential election.
The latest juxtaposition of Trump's and Rybolovlev's aircrafts occurred last month, the weekend of Feb. 10-12, when the oligarch's plane landed at Miami International Airport while Trump was at Mar-a-Lago entertaining Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.