An entity linked to late Russian minister and political operative Mikhail Lesin has sold a Beverly Hills mansion for $23 million in an all-cash transaction.
Lesin, an adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the country’s former minister of communications and mass media, is credited as the founder of the state-funded Russian news outlet RT. He was found dead in a Washington DC hotel in November of 2015.
10 Beverly Park (Redfin)
The deal for the property at 10 Beverly Park closed on Wednesday, according to Zillow. A broker who worked on the listing for Sotheby’s International Realty brokers declined to identify the buyer but said the new owner is someone who owns multiple properties in Beverly Park, the wealthy gated community that sits above Beverly Hills.
The estate consists of a 13,500-square foot home built on a two-acre lot in Beverly Park South. It has features such as a movie theater, a gym with a steam room and sauna and an outdoor pool.
The seller is Dastel Holdings, an entity registered to Lesin’s son, film producer Anton Lessine. Dastel bought the property for $13.8 million in 2011, property records show. Dastel also previously owned 321 South Bristol Avenue, a French Mediterranean-style mansion in Brentwood. The entity sold the property for $16.8 million in 2019. According to previous reports, Lesin purchased $28 million worth of Los Angeles real estate since moving his family to the US in 2009.
The property acquisitions raised some concerns among US officials. “That a Russian public servant could have amassed the considerable funds required to acquire and maintain these assets… raises serious questions,” U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi wrote to then-Attorney General Eric Holder in 2014.
The Beverly Park mansion had been on and off the market for the last five years, according to one broker. It had an asking price of $29 million when it was first listed in 2017.