Embattled Indian liquor magnate Vijay Mallya has sold his panoramic Sausalito home for $14.4 million, just inching past a $14 million trade in Ross to become the most expensive sale in Marin County so far this year.
When the 11,000-square-foot home at 6 Bulkley Avenue first came to market in 2021, it was listed at $22.5 million. That price dropped to $20 million the following summer. It was most recently listed at $16.85 million, according to a marketing site from Mill Valley-based Coldwell Banker agent Farnoosh Hariri.
Hariri confirmed that she was still the listing agent on the home, which has been in and out of foreclosure since 2019, when it sold. Hariri declined to comment on the sale.
Mallya purchased what was then a shell home for $1.2 million in 1994, according to a San Francisco Chronicle profile in 2003. Its previous owner had defaulted on the property.
The former chairman of United Spirits, known for its Kingfisher beer brand, Mallya spent many times the sales price finishing the house and filling it with art by Picasso, Renoir and a gold Steinway piano, according to the Chronicle. It also said he owned 26 homes around the world at that time, plus 260 classic cars, and several jets and yachts, including the famed Kalizma, once owned by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Mallya, once the face of Kingfisher and known as the “King of Good Times” in India, has sold off the Kalizma as well as many of his homes and other assets over the last few years as his bet on starting Kingfisher Airlines in 2005 failed to pay off. In 2016, he had to flee India to avoid arrest on money laundering and fraud charges, with more than $1 billion owed to more than a dozen banks.
The country is still seeking his extradition from England, where he hosted a lavish week-long wedding celebration for his son Sidhartha on his $14 million estate in Hertfordshire this summer, according to the Economic Times.
Back in Sausalito, Mallya’s $5 million loan from 2015 first became distressed in 2019 and was in and out of foreclosure throughout the pandemic. A notice of trustee’s sale was filed on an unpaid balance of about $5.3 million in March 2023 on behalf of lender Wilmington Trust, and a public auction set for May that year. It appears not to have sold at auction at that point, and another notice of default was sent to Mallya that summer.
Records from the Aug. 20 close show Mallya’s daughter Leana as the seller of the property, though a substitution of trustee filing from earlier that month still put Wilmington Trust as the beneficiary.
The buyer was Puna LLC based in Colorado. Its mailing address from Colorado state records matches the San Diego address of Wenthur Law Group, a law and tax firm which specializes in yacht, jet and vintage automobile purchasing, according to a feature on senior partner Cris Wenthur by the International Superyacht Society.
Wenthur speaks internationally at superyacht events around the world, according to the story, and has worked for the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race teams, Oracle and other teams as legal counsel over more than 20 years. Wenthur’s name is listed on the state LLC filing but it is unclear if he bought the home for himself or on behalf of a client.
The hillside home has panoramic views of the bay, Alcatraz, Angel Island and the San Francisco skyline, and while it is less than half a mile to the Sausalito Yacht Club, it does not have its own dock.
Marin’s biggest sale last year was a $23 million dock home in Belvedere, and its second-biggest was a $17.5 million trade for a property on Bolinas Bay in Stinson Beach.
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Though 6 Bulkley lacks direct water access, there is a swimming pool, spa, sauna and steam shower on the view terrace, on the lowest of the four-level elevator home. Ornate interior details in the seven-bedroom, 12-bath house include inlaid Italian marble floors, gilded columns and mosaic bathroom tiling. It has a three-car garage and room for three more behind its gated entry.