Back in February we reported that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the sexy supermodel, singer and first lady of France, had sold her family's castle in Italy (above) to an Arab sheikh. Now the buyer, who has since been revealed as billionaire Saudi businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has relisted the historic castle with an affiliate of Christie's Great Estates with a reported asking price of about $28 million; he was said to have originally paid anywhere from $12 million - $25 million depending on sources. The 40-room, 21,000-sq.-ft. Castello di Castagneto Po, near Turin, has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over the years but is believed to first date from the year 1019. Bruni's father, the billionaire industrialist Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, bought the historic estate in 1952 for about $1.5 million. It is surrounded by 175 acres replete with vegetable gardens, orchards, flowering terraces, ancient greenhouses, a caretaker's house and a farm building.

The mystery buyer of the 289-ft. Maltese Falcon, the world's largest, best designed, and most expensive sailing superyacht, has been revealed as Elena Ambrosiadou, Greek-born founder of hedge fund Ikos Partners. The UK's highest-paid woman and its wealthiest female entrepreneur, Ambrosiadou, pictured above after winning the Perini Navi Cup with her new toy (and collecting the Rolex prize), is said to have paid $120 million for the megayacht. Built by Perini Navi for venture capitalist Tom Perkins in 2006, it remains the ne plus ultra of sailing superyachts, a masterpiece of technology and design, and was recently featured on the cover of Luxury Toys: Top of the World. Her revolutionary sailing system - the DynaRig - set a new milestone in yachting history: three self-standing and rotating masts hosting 15 sails for a total sail area of 25,791 square feet for unrivaled, performance maneuverability and record-shattering speed; she can complete Atlantic crossings in ten days.

[via JamesList]

Do we need a better augury of a renewed global economy than this? TMZ is reporting that our favorite spendthrift Roman Abramovich is at it again. He spent around $52,000 on lunch in New York City at Italian food restaurant Nello's. Abramovich and his party of nine others dined on truffle carpaccio, rigatoni Siciliana, truffle taglioni, filet mignon and more but what really boosted the tab was the wine. The bill which TMZ has obtained shows bottles of Cristal Rosé, Chateau Petrus and Domaine Romanee-Conti La Tache as well as some Johnnie Walker Blue. Apparently, Abramovich and his crew aren't sweets lovers, there's just one lone tiramisu on the list.

TMZ reports that the check had an automatic gratuity of 20 percent, over $7,000 but Roman and crew threw in another $5,000, bringing the tip to 26 percent. Classy move, oligarchs.

All those who bought Beanie Babies in the hope that they would only go up in value might enjoy a bit of schadenfreude with the news that Ty Warner, who made a fortune on selling those plush toys, is facing a cash crunch of his own. The Wall Street Journal reports that Warner is struggling to get a extension on his $345 million securitized mortgage on four of his luxury hotels because of, what else, a lack of cash flow.

The servicer overseeing the mortgage handed it off to a special servicer, Capmark Financial Group. The four hotels haven't been able to generate the $44.6 million in annual cash flow necessary to qualify for a one-year extension of the loan according to debt-rating company Realpoint LLC. The four hotels are the Four Seasons in Manhattan, The Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and Las Ventanas in Baja. Occupancy in the four hotels has declined around ten percent over the past six months.

Warner bought the hotels between 1999 and 2004 after amassing his Beanie-infused fortune. He now must struggle to reach a compromise with the special servicer to revise the mortgage and get an extension. This is something that may be in the best interest of the mortgage holder in a time when more and more hotels are facing difficulties. All the hotels remain open during the crisis. And you can still rent the Ty Warner suite, shown at right, in the New York Four Seasons for around $35,000 a night.

The latest in the Bernie Madoff saga is actually a bit of good news for his myriad victims. Reuters reports that they will receive more than $534 million in payouts, according to court-appointed trustee Irving Picard, who is trying to recover Madoff's assets.

The sum is less than one-eighth of the $4.44 billion of claims that Picard has so far deemed valid and is less than 3% of the $21.2 billion of losses suffered by holders of 2,335 Madoff accounts. These losses are up from the $13 billion the government estimated in June, when Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Picard, a partner at the law firm Baker & Hostetler LLP, said he has reviewed 2,861 direct customer claims, allowing 1,558 and rejecting 1,303. He said 15,974 customer claims were submitted and noted that he has recovered $1.4 billion of Madoff assets, an amount that should reach $1.5 billion by year end.

Picard has filed lawsuits to recover $15 billion from Madoff investors he calls "net winners." Of the 4,903 accounts at Madoff's firm on December 11, 2008, when Madoff was arrested, 2,568 received more money than they deposited, he said.

Picard also said he will pursue the recovery of $7.2 billion from the estate of billionaire philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who recently drowned in a swimming pool at his Palm Beach, Fla., home following a heart attack.

The Securities Investor Protection Corp, a federally chartered agency that supervises the liquidation of brokerages, has been "the only source of distributed funds" to victims so far, agency president Stephen Harbeck said, adding that the $534.25 million of committed advances is more than in the SIPC's 321 combined prior liquidations since 1970. Federal law limits SIPC protection to $500,000.

We all know that youth will always have an edge in pop culture and consumerism. But now even babies in utero are in on the commercialized luxe life. A new show on WeTV, Platinum Babies, debuting on Friday, November 6, will highlight wealthy parents-to-be who are sparing no expense when it comes to getting ready for their little one's arrival. In the first two episodes you'll meet Victoria and Tom, and Tara and Andrew, and watch along as they shop, shop, shop, par-tay (celebs on hand, natch), get massages, et cetera. I don't think I'll be DVRing this show, as I feel a little bit icky thinking about what I assume will be baby exploitation and massive, blatant product placement.

A 137-ft. racing schooner dubbed the Elena, built in 1910 for financier Morton F. Plant and one of the most coveted superyachts of its day, has been rebuilt and relaunched in all its original splendor. Plant, who is best remembered these days as the man who traded his Fifth Avenue mansion to Cartier in 1917 for $100 and a pearl necklace, later sold the yacht to Cornelius Vanderbilt, and it won several of the major regattas of its day. Elena's crowning triumph came in 1928 when it won the 3,400 mile 1928 King's Cup Trans-Atlantic Race from New York to Santander, Spain. Now the Elena (above) has been completely rebuilt by Spain's Factoria Naval de Marin with help from the original hand-drawn plans donated by MIT. Historic images of the yacht were painstakingly studied to ensure that every detail was restored to perfection, from her towering masts and nearly 1,200 square meter sail plan to the wide teak deck and luxurious appointments. The Elena can accommodate 10 guests in Gilded Age luxury, with mahogany paneling throughout and elegant, period correct fittings discreetly updated with modern technology.

[via Duncan Quinn]

With gold cresting over $1,000 an ounce many gold bugs are patting themselves on the back. Now for those who want to get in on the action there is a new way to buy gold. Buying gold bars isn't something you'd think of doing in a department store but Harrods is betting that some will want to buy their bullion in the same place that they buy their gold earrings.

The London Times reports that the Knightsbridge department store has begun selling bars of pure Swiss gold bullion out of a miniature vault. Gold lovers can also buy gold coins from around the world. The new gold sales are part of a collaboration with the Swiss refiner Produits Artistiques Metaux Precieux. Customers can also buy online and then collect their purchase in person. A full-sized gold bar would cost about $466,000 and those who don't have a place to store it can also arrange for a safe deposit box, vault or international service courier.

The latest trend for billionaires around the world seems to be not raises but showy pay cuts. Bloomberg reports that India's Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, took a 66 percent pay cut to "set a personal example of moderation" after a government call for austerity, thereby reducing his salary before he was asked to do so. Ambani, who is the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., will still take home what works out to around $3.3 million in salary plus his family, which owns 49 percent of the company, gets around $216 million in dividends. His younger brother, Anil Ambani is also giving up salary and commission from the five companies he owns. Mukesh Ambani is famous for his extravagance. He is currently building what will be the world's most lavish home, a $2 billion 27-story skyscraper and in 2007 he bought his wife and Airbus 319 plane for her birthday.

No matter what is going on in the world, some country is always churning out billionaires. RIght now it's China. The Hurun Report in Shanghai recently released its Hurun RIch List which shows that the ranks of China's wealthy are growing at a rapid rate. The cut-off for the list was raised by 50 percent up to $150 million and as the Wall Street Journal reports, it still grew by 180 people. On the list there are 130 U.S.-dollar-equivalent billionaires. Hurun Report publisher Rupert Hoogewerf suspects the list may actually not reflect just how many billionaires there are in China because he says that many have built up wealth in a more private way. Car-battery maker Wang Chuanfu sits at the top of the list with $5.1 billion and China's richest woman, paper-recycling tycoon Zhang Yin is right after him in the second slot.

For Nicolas Cage the internet seems to full of some good news and some bad news today. First the bad, TMZ has documents that show that Nicolas Cage's current total owed to the IRS is now a steep $6,257,005. But here's the good, he may have finally unloaded his Bel-Air Tudor home. The home which once belonged to singer Tom Jones and to Dean Martin was for sale for as high as $35 million back in 2006. A sealed bid auction was scheduled for September 24 with the minimum opening offer set at $9.95 million. The MLS now has the home as "looking for backup" which means an offer has been made, and hopefully will stick. Cage paid around $6.5 million for the home in 1998. Cage also recently sold his New York City apartment which had been listed at $9.75 million.



He still has four homes on the market in the U.S.:
His Las Vegas home is listed at $9.49 million.


His Rhode Island home sits at $12 million.


One of his New Orleans homes is listed for $3.45 million.


The other, the haunted LaLaurie mansion is still listed for $3.55 million.

Earlier this year former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy was ordered to pay nearly $2.9 billion to shareholders, now his belongings are being divvied up in order to begin to help satisfy that ruling. As we've seen in the Madoff case, tracking down a rich man's holdings isn't always easy. Just how much money Scrushy has isn't clear but lawyers have been rounding up his many belongings and fighting Scrushy's legal team every step of the way.

HealthSouth shareholders had filed a lawsuit claiming Scrushy was involved in years of overstating the company's earnings and assets so that it looked like the company was meeting the Wall Street forecasts. He was acquitted in a federal criminal case over related charges and testified in the state civil case that he knew nothing about any fraud but is currently serving a sentence for a 2006 conviction in a separate state government bribery case. The Scrushy saga was also featured in the CNBC show American Greed.

One item up for potential sale is the 92-foot yacht, Chez Soiree. The yacht, which is currently anchored in North Palm Beach, Florida, is supposed to be up for sale this weekend. Scrushy has said he doesn't own the yacht but a Cayman Islands-based firm bearing his middle name, Marin Ltd., does. The Birmingham News says that the Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department has a November 9 auction date planned for Scrushy's $5 million Lake Martin, Alabama home and all of the contents of it and a hangar on the property, a hoard of hundreds of items including a cigarette boat and jet skis. The Birmingham News has PDFs of the list of belongings up for sale complete with black and white shots of wicker chairs, television sets and bad art. Neighbors had referred to the 14,000 square foot home as "the world's largest La Quinta Inn"

Scrushy's cars, 19 seized vehicles in total, were sold at auction last month. The cars includes a Bentley Azure, a Rolls Royce Corniche, a Hummer and a Porsche 911 and brought in more than $850,000 total. Scrushy's team of lawyers had also tried to delay that sale.

There are those who think all rich people are bloodsuckers. The ones in author Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods books certainly are. The bestselling series centers on a secret society of socialites within New York City's most elite families, whose ancestors sailed on the Mayflower - and who happen to be vampires living in luxury on the Upper East Side. De la Cruz (right) celebrated the publication of the fourth installment in the series, The Van Alen Legacy, due to be released today, with a book bash at Meet at the Apartment in Soho the other night. Sexy burlesque star Veronica Varlow (left), who has been featured on MTV and hailed as the next Dita Von Teese, performed a vampire-themed routine at the event, as guests sipped cocktails, enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and indulged in mini-cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop. The Blue Bloods series, which has over a million copies in print, has topped the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.

I love a good treasure hunt and the AP has a great story of one that is going on in Illinois. Patty Henken bought an old rocking chair for $200 at an auction and when she removed the seat she found an envelope with "Finders Keepers" typewritten on it. Inside, a key was taped to a note which gave directions for finding a lead chest filled with gold coins buried underground. So far the treasure hasn't been unearthed but that's not for lack of trying. A search of the site, now a vacant lot, with a donated backhoe last week did not yield any major discovery, only a cistern with bricks and antique bottles. The note was signed by a "Chauncey Wolcott" and appears to have been written sometime after World War II since it says the chest "cannot be located by metal detector" and that is around the time that metal detectors first became popular. It could all be a hoax but Henken plans to dig at the site again. Here's hoping she finds something great.

UPDATE: Could this be a prank from beyond the grave? It turns out that the alias belonged to a notorious prankster.

It's hard not to be a little envious of Alki David not only is he an actor and producer with roles in films like "The Bank Job" but he is also a billionaire heir to a shipping and bottling plant fortune. David, who has homes in Greece and Switzerland as well as several homes in England is looking to sell his Hampstead home. He and his wife are separating and in the Daily Mail he describes the seven-bedroom home, which he bought last year for £12.5 million, as "a mistake." As soon as the divorce is final the house will be sold. But his method of selling is a bit different, he plans to offer three agents two months to sell the house. The winner takes home a fixed commission, if it doesn't sell, he'll rent it out. A move from a man who clearly doesn't need the immediate influx of cash.

He will move into his £4 million property which has received an £800,000 renovation. Meanwhile, he is living in a two-bedroom flat in Knightsbridge bought two years ago for £1.8million which will give his soon-to-be ex-wife. He plans to expand his latest venture, online media company FilmOn, into the U.S. and is ready to capitalize on the lower prices in Los Angeles and pick up a new mansion there. But for tax purposes his main residence is Cyprus. He also owns a record label, modeling agency and founded the not-for-profit organization, BIOS which works on marine conservation in Greece.