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Residential
New York

A Chinese oil entrepreneur was scooping up Manhattan properties. Then he disappeared.

Companies tied to Ye Jianming had purchased roughly $83M worth of New York properties

Companies with connections to Chinese oil entrepreneur Ye Jianming spent about $83 million on New York City properties and planned to buy $80 million more before Ye’s mysterious disappearance earlier this year.

The deals included purchasing a penthouse from a former Wall Street banker and buying a townhouse from a billionaire close to President Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal. Companies tied to Ye also bought the penthouse of former Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond in 2017 for $50.55 million, along with an apartment at 432 Park Avenue for about $33 million.

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In December, a company tied to Ye went under contract to buy billionaire Vincent Viola’s $80 million townhouse at 12 East 69th Street, which would have set a record at the time for New York’s most expensive residential townhouse ever.

However, Ye went missing early in 2018, and the deal fell apart around the same time. Viola’s house was put back on the market for $88 million.

Ye chairs a conglomerate based in Shanghai called CEFC China Energy, which aggressively expanded abroad in recent years. However, the company is now selling assets and unwinding deals as Ye’s whereabouts are still unknown. [WSJ] – Eddie Small