UBS has bought a Swiss lakeside villa which once belonged to Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for 6 million Swiss francs at auction. What does the Swiss bank plan to do with the luxury property?
The 700-square-meter property has 16 rooms and 25 toilets and boasts 60,000 square meters surroundings, including a French garden which requires two full-time gardeners to maintain, the current owner told a Swiss newspaper.
The asset was blocked in 1997 – the same year that Mobutu died in exile in Morocco – by Swiss prosecutors as part of a crackdown on dictator look. The villa was ordered to be sold three years later by Swiss officials, and proceeds transferred to a blocked account.
UBS Only Bidder
The current owners bought it in 2001 for 3.1 million francs. Years of legal wrangling with Mobutu's heirs over the proceeds and other assets held in Switzerland followed, until the statute of limitations ran out and Switzerland was forced to unfreeze the assets in 2009.
UBS was the only bidder for the former Mobutu property, which was sold at auction on Wednesday.
UBS Plans
The Swiss bank had financed credit for the current owners to buy the villa and plans to sell it on, a spokesman for UBS told finews.ch.
UBS owns showcase properties in Switzerland including Wolfsberg, a 16 century castle on the Lake of Constance that it uses both as a hotel and as a retreat for top management, as well as the Hotel Widder, a luxury hotel in central Zurich.
