Raul Gorrin, who owns Venezuelan TV channel Globovision, paid $18.8 million for the 4,500-square-foot, 47th-floor unit at Baccarat Hotel & Residences in November 2017, at the height of the country’s economic collapse. Venezuela.
Now Gorrin is at risk of losing the apartment, which has views of the Empire State Building and Central Park, after being sanctioned https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-venezuela-sanctions/u-s-sanctions-venezuelan-insiders-for-currency-scheme-idUSKCN1P21YC in January 2019 as part of the Trump administration’s push to oust Maduro. The city sheriff is due to proceed with the auction on July 6, according to previously unreleased court documents.
The sanctions prevent the designated individuals from accessing the US financial system, freeze their assets in the United States, and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
In sanctioning Gorrin, Washington said it had bribed the Venezuelan treasury for the right to conduct foreign exchange transactions that siphoned off billions of funds from the country’s insiders.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces the sanctions, said Gorrin also bought gifts for Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was sanctioned in 2018. Venezuela Information did not respond to a request for comment.
Gorrin faces US criminal charges https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-corruption/u-s-prosecutors-accuse-venezuela-media-mogul-of-bribery-money-laundering-idUKL2N1XV05P in Florida over the alleged bribery. His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. Gorrin, who remains a fugitive and is believed to be in Venezuela, did not respond to the charges.
Since being sanctioned, Gorrin hasn’t paid more than $600,000 in monthly condo fees and late fees for his apartment, according to lawsuits the condo board filed in state court. from New York. Common charges for the apartment exceed $10,000 per month, according to court records.
The unit is officially owned by RIM Group Properties of New York II Corp, which Gorrin controls, according to company records.
Gorrin said in a 2020 filing that the penalties prohibit him from paying condo fees. He said he applied to OFAC for a license to pay, but was not approved.
Daniel Ruzumna, a partner at law firm Patterson Belknap, said the penalties can pose difficulties for those “unwittingly caught in the web.”
“They may not be sanctioned themselves, but they may have interactions with those who are sanctioned. This is the case with this particular group of co-owners,” Ruzumna said.
OFAC did not respond to a request for comment.
The board obtained a court order in August 2020 to collect $184,876 from RIM Group for late payments in 2019, court records show. The board is seeking another judgment for missed payments from 2020.
Last year, the council received permission from OFAC to sell the unit to raise the money, according to the license, obtained by Reuters under the Freedom of Information Act. The license was renewed in February, according to court records.
Any additional funds must be deposited in an escrow account in the name of RIM Group, which Gorrin cannot access while he remains sanctioned.
A council attorney declined to comment.
Maduro remains in power, and accuses Washington of trying to oust him in a coup. Globovision, which once covered the protests against Maduro predecessor Hugo Chavez extensively, has softened its criticism https://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-media/venezuelan-socialists-and-media-owning-london-socialite-make-strange-bedfellows-idUSL2N0S918U20141105 government after Gorrin bought the channel in 2013, according to reporters at the time.
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