A Trump Tower apartment linked to a gambling ring and Russian money-laundering operation has been put up for sale.
The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath condo unit on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, which is on the market for $9.7 million, according to an ad that appeared Wednesday, was once owned by Vadim Trincher, a champion poker player who pleaded guilty in 2013 to federal racketeering charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The 3,100-square-foot unit, which is near the top of the 58-story tower at East 56th Street, allegedly hosted many high-stakes poker matchups, in which players, including celebrities, often racked up debts of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to U.S. Justice Department statements from the time.
Proceeds from the gambling were then funneled to organized crime groups overseas, former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said back then.
Money reportedly flowed in the opposite direction as well. Organizers collected large-scale wagers from sports bets placed by Russian oligarchs, authorities said, and laundered the proceeds through Cyprus and then to Trincher to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Trincher and his accomplices then further concealed the origins of the money by investing it in assets like real estate, authorities added.
After authorities arrested Trincher in the apartment, they recovered $75,000 in cash and $2 million in casino chips, according to a press release. Before pleading guilty, Trincher, who also owned a home in Las Vegas, claimed that any money he had earned from card games was won legally.
Trincher and his wife, Elena, paid $5 million for the unit in 2009, according to the city register, which also shows that he put the home in his wife’s name before reporting to prison.
Since 2016 the unit, which features a bath lined with amethyst from Tanzania and Baccarat chandeliers, has officially been owned by the shell company Trin Holdings LLC.
President Donald Trump, who continues to maintain a triplex unit in a building he developed in 1983, lives a few floors above the Trincher home.
Even before it became ensnared in an international crime ring, the Trinchers’ New York residence found itself in a legal dispute. In October 2012 the couple sued the Trump Tower’s condo board and a construction company involved in a long-running renovation project in an upstairs apartment, court filings show.
The project allegedly led to water leaks that destroyed silk wall panels, the Trinchers claimed, though the suit, which sought $6 million in damages, was settled a few weeks later, according to a filing.
Klevis Metani, a Keller Williams agent with the listing, did not return an email for comment by press time.
