Billionaire Ira Rennert has one of the most expensive estates in the world. With an estimated value of more than $240 million, it is audacious even for the Hamptons where the home is located. The problem for Rennert is that the billionaire is suspected of using money that he siphoned from his own company to pay for it.
The Jewish business man, whose wife is a convert, has an MBA from NYU and made his fortune, estimated by Forbes at $6.3 billion, in junk bonds.
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The estate, dubbed Fair Field, is located in Sagaponack, New York and takes up 63 acres along the ocean. The 62, 000 square foot mansion has 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, three dining rooms, three swimming pools, a 164-seat theater, a basketball court, a gymnasium and a two-lane bowling alley.
The estate itself, which Rennert began construction on back in 1998, is covered by luscious green landscaping and has huge open football sized grass fields. From the air the main house looks like three separate structures with two wings connecting to a center at right angles. A huge courtyard for parking sits between them.
Aerial pictures show how much Fair Field dwarfs the neighboring estates.
But Rennert may be forced to sell if he loses the suit brought against him in Federal court by trustees for his MagCorp’s creditors set to begin on Monday. The businessman stands accused of looting his company to the tune of $120 million to pay for the estate and as a result having caused its failure. They are seeking as much as $700 million in compensation for the funds taken as well as interest and punitive damages.
Lawyers for the 80 year old investor have stated, “MagCorp was a financially strong and successful company at the time of all of the distributions in question. The only way the plaintiff can get around that core issue of the case is by raising distortions and by caricaturing Mr. Rennert personally, but those distractions do not have legal substance, as our filings prove.”
