Flavio Briatore

Flavio Briatore's Race-Fixing Scandal

Filed under: Wheels, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Millionaire playboy and Formula One head Flavio Briatore is the center of major controversy today. Briatore, famous as much for his freespending and modelizing ways as his racing career, has stepped down as the head of the Renault team. Briatore told the Daily Mirror that he made the move for the good of the team amid allegations of race-fixing. Both Briatore and the team's executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, left their posts after Renault refused to contest allegations that former Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was asked to deliberately crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix. His crash benefitted the team's other driver Fernando Alonso who went on to win the race.

Members of the Renault team are set to appear before the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in Paris on Monday and face the possibility of being expelled from competition. Now that Briatore and Symonds are no longer part of the team Renault may not be banned but will likely face a fine or some other action. Piquet has already testified that he was told by Briatore and Symonds when and where to crash .According to CNN, Renault's chief operating officer Patrick Peralta has said that Briatore and Symonds are solely responsible for the incident.

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Tags: flavio briatore, FlavioBriatore, formula one, FormulaOne, renault

Flavio Briatore's NYC Penthouse, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

You many never have heard of Flavio Briatore but you've probably heard of some of his ex-girlfriends including Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell. Briatore, who married Wonderbra model Elisabetta Gregoraci last year, is the managing director of the Renault Formula 1 team and a businessman with various interests including the Billionaire club in Sardinia.

Briatore bought his penthouse at One Beacon Court in New York City in 2005 for a reported $11 million sum. Even though he once said he only spends two weeks in Manhattan a year, he picked up a place at the Plaza for a reported $25 million. That number, coincidentally, is what he's asking for the One Beacon Court penthouse, which the NY Times says has been on the market since last September. His penthouse has four bedrooms and 13-foot ceilings. The listing says the decor was done by Alberto Pinto and features "the most powerful master bedroom seen in years." I wouldn't go quite that far but is is rather lovely. The penthouse has two guest rooms and staff quarters and city views that have probably seduced many a long-legged lass.

Cityfile reports you can rent Briatore's Plaza apartment for $65,000 a month.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Gallery: Flavio Briatore in NYC

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Tags: estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, flavio briatore, FlavioBriatore, new york city, NewYorkCity, one beacon court, OneBeaconCourt

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World's Most Expensive Umbrella is $50,000

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Men's Style

This past summer we wrote about the battle over Sardinia's famed Billionaire club, which some felt was overly ostentatious in these straitened times. The club's owner, playboy Formula One mogul Flavio Briatore, blasted the criticism, defending the rich's right to luxury. Obviously Briatore has the courage of his convictions; his ultra-high end men's clothing line, Billionaire Couture, has just come out with the world's most expensive umbrella.

Made entirely of crocodile skin, the ultra-luxe umbrella (above) is available by special order for $50,000 from Billionaire Couture's London boutique. The brand, which is worn by the likes of Paul McCartney, David Beckham and Sean "Diddy" Combs, is founded on "a relentless search for original details that express quality, sophistication and eccentricity [that] at times goes intentionally overboard." We'd say a $50,000 umbrella falls into that latter category.

Gallery: Billionaire Couture

Tags: Billionaire Club, Billionaire Couture, BillionaireClub, BillionaireCouture, Crocodile, Flavio Briatore, FlavioBriatore, Sardinia, Umbrella

The Battle Over Sardinia's Famed Billionaire Club

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Journeys

One of the investors in Billionaire, the famed club for the megarich on Sardinia's swank Emerald Coast, says the club should be shuttered because of the current economic climate. Billionaire, a favored haunt of tycoons who come to frolic with the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, Kate Moss and Sean Combs, is controlled by rakish Formula 1 mogul Flavio Briatore (above), but Italian entrepreneur and politician Daniela Santanchè has a 10% stake.

Santanchè says that the ultra-exclusive club, where methuselahs of Cristal go for $50,000 a pop, is an offensive relic of a more wasteful age, the London Guardian reports. "With people struggling to get by, Billionaire should be consigned to history," Santanchè says. "I myself have put my Aston Martin in the garage and get around in a Fiat 500."

"Daniela has been in the sun too long," Briatore, who has dated the likes of Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, fired back. "What she's saying is absurd. If luxury is suddenly a problem let's close Bulgari and Cartier, or even all the discos, restaurants and the whole of the Emerald Coast." That may not be necessary, in any case. The New York Times recently reported that the hotspot has lost a lot of its exclusivity lately and that some recent visitors aren't even millionaires, let alone billionaires.

Tags: Aston Martin, AstonMartin, Billionaire, Billionaire Club, BillionaireClub, Cristal, Daniela Santanch, DanielaSantanch, Emerald Coast, EmeraldCoast, Flavio Briatore, FlavioBriatore, Formula 1, Formula1, Italy, Kate Moss, KateMoss, Naomi Campbell, NaomiCampbell, Sardinia

Flavio Briatore Protests Billionaire Style

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

Where do would you go to fight a yacht tax? How about a nightclub called Billionaire. The club, owned by serial modelizer and Formula One manager Flavio Briatore, was the setting for a new debate in Sardinia. Briatore is protesting new taxes for the megarich yacht owners who flock to Sardinia's ports. New laws charge owners of megayachts for port usage, charge fees on larger private planes each time they land and levy large taxes on those with large second homes on the island. According to the Independent, Briatore has has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements and hosted a party at Billionaire for objectors to the new rules. Briatore says that the wealthy bring money and to the island and should not be charged these fees but the locals feel that the fees are necessary to help preserve the unique character of this gorgeous place.

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Tags: billionaire, flavio briatore, FlavioBriatore, italy, sardinia

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