Sanctioned Venezuelan staves off auction of New York City apartment

NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) – A Venezuelan media mogul sanctioned by the United States claimed he has acquired authorization from Washington to make the payments necessary to stay away from shedding a luxury New York City condominium.

Raul Gorrin, the owner of Venezuelan television channel Globovision and an ally of socialist President Nicolas Maduro, informed Reuters on Wednesday evening that he had been given a license from the U.S. Treasury Section to pay the $650,000 he owes to the building’s condo board and to New York Town.

The license from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Belongings Manage (OFAC) staved off a general public auction of the property that experienced been set for Wednesday afternoon, Gorrin claimed.

The Treasury Division declined to remark.

Gorrin bought the 4,500-sq.-foot Manhattan apartment on the 47th floor of the Baccarat Hotel & Residences for $18.8 million in November 2017, at the peak of Venezuela’s financial collapse, New York Town residence data show.

Gorrin was sanctioned by the Trump administration in January 2019 as aspect of a force to oust Maduro.

In early 2019, he stopped paying out frequent rates of roughly $10,000 for each month to the building’s condominium board, in accordance to court docket records.

Sanctions block individuals designated from accessing the U.S. economic program, freeze their U.S. belongings and frequently bar People from transacting with them. A attorney for Gorrin reported in court papers that the sanctions experienced prevented him from generating the payments, and OFAC experienced not granted previously requests for a license clearing him to spend.

The board received a courtroom buy in August 2020 to collect $184,876 in missed payments from RIM Group Homes of New York II Corp, the firm by way of which Gorrin owns the condominium, which is throughout the street from the Museum of Present day Art (MoMA) and offers views of the Empire Point out Developing and Central Park.

Gorrin did not answer on Wednesday when requested by Reuters no matter whether he experienced paid out the money owed due to the fact getting the license.

A attorney for the Baccarat’s condominium board did not reply to a ask for for remark.

Maduro stays in electrical power in Venezuela and has accused Washington of striving to oust him in a coup.

(This tale was refiled to delete repetitive paragraph to explain Treasury Office declined to remark)

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York
Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Josie Kao

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