Viktor Vekselberg's Estate (57th Richest Man in the World)

This is the rustic Weston, Connecticut mansion of Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg and Marina Dobrynina Vekselberg. Viktor Vekselberg is the main owner and president of Renova Group, a large Russian conglomerate with interests in aluminum, oil, energy, telecoms and a variety of other sectors. The Renova Group is primarily active in Russia, the C.I.S. states, Switzerland, South Africa and the United States. Its major assets include participation in the oil company TNK-BP and in aluminum producer RUSAL. Mr. Vekselberg's net worth, as of 2012 is estimated at $13.0 Billion (13,000,000,000.) He is the 10th richest individual in Russia, and the 57th richest man in the world, according to Forbes (that the public is aware of). He also owns a pied-à-terre in the Park Millennium in Midtown Manhattan. Both of these properties were mentioned in an article featured on Gawker.com

Born on April 14, 1956, Drohobych, Ukraine, Soviet Union, he graduated from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in 1979. In 1993, he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renova, one of Russia's most progressive investment and business development companies. After working as an engineer in an obscure state lab for many years, Vekselberg moved to business in 1990. He rose to prominence after Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996 as co-owner and chairman of Tyumen Oil (TNK), one of Russia's largest oil and gas companies. He took a controlling interest in the company in 1997 and has subsequently developed a joint venture with BP. About the same time he co-founded SUAL Holding, which since grew to control Russia's second-largest aluminum business and is ranked ninth in the world. Later, he integrated those and other assets under the umbrella of Renova Group, delegating operating responsibilities to managers. Acting as a chairman of the executive board of TNK, he was instrumental in negotiating and establishing a 50–50 joint venture with British Petroleum in the largest private transaction in Russian history. He is currently a member of the board of directors and the vice-president of TNK-BP. Vekselberg is now overseeing a vast restructuring of his assets: the division of property with partner Leonard Blavatnik, the merger of Renova's aluminum assets with those of Oleg Deripaska, and the integration of various electricity and telecommunications investment. Viktor Vekselberg is often considered to be one of the remaining Russian oligarchs. He and his wife, Marina Dobrynina, have two children, a daughter, Irena, who attended business school at the Yale School of Management, and a son, Aleksander, who studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

In February 2004, Vekselberg purchased nine of the Fabergé eggs from the Forbes publishing family in New York City. The collection was transported to Russia and exhibited in the Kremlin and in Dubrovnik in 2007. Vekselberg is the single largest owner of these eggs in the world, owning 15 of them (11 Imperial, two Kelch, and two other). In September 2006, he agreed to pay the approximately $1 million in expenses to transport the Lowell House Bells from Harvard University in the United States back to their original location in the Danilov Monastery and to purchase replacement bells. The historic bells returned to Moscow September 12, 2008, with the assistance of the U.S. Director of the organization, Edward Mermelstein. In April 2009, Swiss Federal Finance Department initiated a criminal investigation against Viktor Vekselberg in connection to alleged violations of securities law. As a result of the investigation, Viktor Vekselberg was fined for $38 million by Swiss authorities. In 2008, Viktor Vekselberg proxied a deal between Russian and Hungarian governments, buying the former embassy building from Hungary for $21 million and immediately selling it to the Russian government for $116 million, while the market price of the building was estimated at $50 million. Investigation of the paper trail by Alexey Navalny and the Rospil project has found several invalid and backdated documents, thus suggesting collusion (e.g. the tender held by the Hungarian side was totally fictive, as the building was already sold by that time). Hungarian officials responsible for the deal (Tátrai Miklós, Marta Horvathne Fekszi and Arpad Szekely) were detained in February 2011, but no criminal investigation was started on the Russian side.

This estate, built in 2001, is currently listed under the ownership of Marina Dobrynina, when it was originally listed under Marina Vekselberg. The home was purchased on August 30, 2001 by an LLC for $5,000,000. The property borders the Saugatuck River, which flows into Long Island Sound. The home sits on 4.6 acres of land, which consist of a guest house, a tennis court with a basketball hoop, and a heated swimming pool. The main house has a total of 7,791 square feet of living space, including 1,131 square feet of space in the finished basement. There are 4 bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms in the home, which is currently appraised at $4,523,100, according to public property records.