Tamir Sapir (born Temur Sepiashvili, ka, თემურ სეფიაშვილი; 1946/1947 – September 26, 2014) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

-born,

Georgian-American Georgian Americans ( ka, ქართველი ამერიკელები, tr) are Americans of full or partial Georgians, Georgian ancestry. They encompass ethnic Georgians who have immigrated to the U.S. from Georgia (country), Georg ...

businessman, real estate developer and investor. He was the founder of the Sapir Organization, a real estate investment firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Sapir originally made his fortune

trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...

oil and fertilizers with the Soviet Union during the 1980s. He became a billionaire in 2002, with his wealth peaking in 2007 at US$2 billion, according to

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

Early life and education

Temur Sepiashvili was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Tbilisi, Georgia Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million peo ...

. His father was a major in the Soviet Army. In the early 1970s he studied journalism at

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი ''Ivane Javaxishvi ...

but left to earn money to support his family because of his father's death.

Career

He took a job processing emigration applications for Soviet Jews and in 1973, he immigrated to Israel with his wife around the time of the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

. He changed his last name to Sapir while in Israel and moved to the United States first to

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

where he learned English and worked as a bus driver, janitor and a loader; and then to New York City where he worked as a

taxicab A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

driver borrowing money for his medallion. He then opened an electronics store with fellow immigrant

Sam Kislin Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov (russian: Вячесла́в Кири́ллович Иванько́в) (January 2, 1940 – October 9, 2009) was a Russian mafia boss and thief in law who was believed to have connections with Russian state intellig ...

, Joy Lud International Distributors on Fifth Avenue, catering primarily to Russian clientele. Sapir made contacts with the Soviet contingent to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

in New York, and started trading electronics, clothing, and footwear for exclusive rights to sell Soviet oil and oil products which he then sold to American companies. Investing the profits in Manhattan real estate in the 1990s, which was then in a slump, he became a billionaire by 2002. Sapir has been referred to as America's "billionaire cabbie". Sapir brought a lawsuit in Russia against a Moscow oil refinery after it violated the terms of a contract by failing to transfer oil products for delivered equipment. Sapir won the case in 2005, but received none of the $28 million the Moscow company was ordered to pay. Sapir was a financier and development partner for the construction of the

Trump SoHo The Dominick, formerly the Trump SoHo, is a $450 million, 46-story, 391-unit hotel condominium located at 246 Spring Street at the corner of Varick Street in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was announced in 2006, c ...

in Manhattan in 2006.

Sapir Organization

In 2006, Sapir named his son Alex the chairman and President of the Sapir Organization.

Personal life

Sapir was married twice. His first marriage to Bella Sapir ended in divorce. He has five children: Ruth Sapir Barinstein (born 1973), Zina Sapir (born 1974), Alex Sapir (born 1980), Zita, Eli.Park East Synagogue: Memorial Service Tamir Sapir
October 26, 2014 His second wife was Elena Ponomareva. He was a member of the

Park East Synagogue Park East Synagogue is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. Building The building was built in 1889–1890. The architects were Schneider and Herter, who designed numerous tenements on New York's Lower East Side as ...

in Manhattan. He built the

Congregation of Georgian Jews The Congregation of Georgian Jews is an Orthodox synagogue at 6304 Yellowstone Boulevard, in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York. The members are late twentieth century immigrants from the Republic of Georgia. History The synagogu ...

synagogue in Rego Park, Queens.COLLive: "Tamir Sapir, 67, OBM"
Sep 29, 2014 He died on September 26, 2014, aged 67.away Notice of death of Tamir Sapir
therealdeal.com; accessed 3 October 2014. He has 6 grandchildren, Ariana, Gabriel Barinstein. David, Raquel Rosen and Sebastian and Timur Sapir. His daughter, Zina Sapir and Rotem Rosen, the CEO of Africa Israel USA and close to Lev Leviev of Africa Israel Investments, were married on December 20, 2007, at Mar-a-Lago with the Pussycat Dolls and

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...

performing. Friends of the couple,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

and

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...

, were invited to the June 1, 2008, '' bris'' of their infant son. Rotem Rosen was pivotal to Lev Leviev's April 2007 purchase of the Times Building on West 43rd Street for $525 million. His three mansion estate, The Fountains was an expanded version of a 1928 mansion. It is located at 26 Pond Road, Great Neck, New York. It is currently for sale at an asking price of $55 million.

References

External links

"$40 Million Man"
Forbes.com, January 12, 2006
"Timur Sapir. The Long Road to Wealth"
newtimes.ru, May 2006 interview
"The Adventures Of Timur Sapir"
russians.rin.ru (in Russian)

nbcnewyork.com; accessed October 3, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sapir, Tamir 1940s births 2014 deaths American billionaires American businesspeople in retailing American businesspeople in the oil industry American people of Georgian-Jewish descent American real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from New York (state) Soviet emigrants to Israel Israeli emigrants to the United States Jews from Georgia (country) People from Kings Point, New York Billionaires from Georgia (country) 20th-century American businesspeople