Russian Heiress, 22, Buys Former Citigroup Chairman’s $88M NYC Apartment

                                                                                                                                 WENN.com

The 6,744-square-foot NYC apartment of former Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill has sold for a record-high $88 million to the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian billionaire who plans to use the apartment part time when visiting the city.

Representatives for Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, confirmed in a statement that a company associated with woman had signed a contract to purchase Weill's apartment at 15 Central Park West.

PHOTOS: See Inside Rybolovleva's New Home

Weill listed the 10-room apartment, with views of Central Park, for $88 million in November, promising to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

The New York Observer was the first to report that Rybolovleva paid the full asking price, making it the highest individual transaction in New York City history.

Rybolovleva is studying at an undisclosed U.S. university and plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York, her reps said.  She was born in Russia but has lived in Monaco and Switzerland for the past 15 years.

The man footing her apartment bill, her father, Dmitriy Rybolovlev, is the world's 93rd richest man, according to Forbes, with a net worth around $9.5 billion. He made his fortune through a fertilizer business, Uralkali, which he sold in 2010.

Rybolovlev has made headlines before, for both his real estate transactions and his personal life.

In 1996, he was accused of murdering a fellow businessman before ultimately being acquitted for lack of evidence.

More than a decade later, in 2008, he purchased Donald Trump's 33,000-square-foot Palm Beach mansion for $95 million.  He is now battling his wife, Elena, over control of that mansion in their ongoing, billion-dollar divorce.

His daughter's new New York pied-a-terre includes a wraparound terrace that, alone, is bigger than most New York apartments, at more than 2,000 square feet.

The four bedroom apartment, which Weill and wife Joan purchased in 2007 for $43.7 million, also includes two wood-burning fireplaces.

The previous real estate record in New York was the $53 million sale of a townhouse to a private-equity investor in 2006.

Rybolovleva is not the first 22-year-old heiress to make real estate headlines in the United States this year.

In July, heiress Petra Ecclestone, daughter of U.K. Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, made a similarly high-priced purchase on the West Coast.  She paid $85 million in cash for "Candyland," the nearly 57,000-square-foot Los Angeles mansion that was previously owned by Candy Spelling, the widow of famed U.S. television producer Aaron Spelling, and the mother of reality-TV star Tori Spelling.