The Insane Cursed History Of Mike Tyson & 50 Cent's Former Connecticut Mansion (Which Was Just Listed For $10m)

In the mid-1980s, a man named Benjamin Sisti was riding high.

Sisti was the founder of a seemingly very successful real estate company called Colonial Realty. Benjamin Sisti and Jonathan Googel co-founded Colonial Realty in 1966. By the late 1980s, Colonial had ballooned into one of the largest real estate syndication firms in the country, controlling roughly $2 billion in property across 80 limited partnerships, many of them in Connecticut.

A Mansion Is Born

As both a personal reward and a very public way of celebrating his expanding fortunes, in 1985, Sisti completed construction on a 52,000-square-foot mansion set on over 17 acres in Farmington, Connecticut, a short drive from Colonial's Hartford headquarters. He spent a reported $2.3 million constructing the mansion, the modern equivalent of around $7 million. The estate features a large private lake, tennis court, a 4-bedroom guest house and and much more. The primary home has roughly 20 bedrooms and 40 bathrooms!

Unfortunately, behind the 52,000-square-foot facade, Sisti was operating a giant Ponzi-like fraud through Colonial. The company took in money from investors even as its finances collapsed, concealed material information, and funneled millions to relatives to hide assets from creditors. They even bribed public officials—including the Mayor of Waterbury—to keep pension money flowing into their projects. An estimated 7,000 people would come forward as victims of the scheme, some of whom claimed to have lost their life savings. It apparently still stands as the largest real estate fraud in Connecticut's history.

In 1990, both Sisti and Colonial were forced to declare bankruptcy. In his filing, Sisti claimed to have just $15,000 in cash to his name. His beloved mansion slipped into foreclosure, and in 1992, it was acquired at auction by the People's Bank for $3.5 million. A year later, Sisti took a plea deal. In 1995, he was sentenced to 9 years of federal prison.

While all that was going on, in 1993, a Lithuanian businessman bought the home from the bank for $2.7 million. Within a year, the Lithuanian was also reportedly facing bankruptcy. He held off his creditors for the next few years before selling the estate in early 1996 for $2.8 million. The buyer in 1996 was Mike Tyson.

(Photo by Gregory Bojorquez/Getty Images)

The Mike Tyson Era

A year before the sale, Mike was sitting in a prison cell in Indiana. He had been convicted of rape in 1992 and was released in March 1995.

Six months after his release, Mike earned $25 million by nearly murdering Peter McNeely in the ring in his highly anticipated boxing comeback. A few months later, Mike bought the Connecticut mansion.

Over the next two years, Mike earned $155 million from just six fights. And as you might expect, he poured a healthy portion of those earnings into the Connecticut estate, adding a nightclub he called "Club TKO," an indoor pool, a basketball court, and an indoor racquetball court.

Unfortunately, as you may know, Tyson's finances eventually imploded. In his first three years after being released from prison, Mike spent the following amounts:

• $4.5 million on cars and motorbikes (19 vehicles he bought for friends)
• $400,000 on pigeons and a variety of big cats, such as Siberian tigers
• $300,000 on lawn care and garden maintenance alone
• $240,000 per month for walking-around money
• $230,000 on cell phones, pagers, and phone bills
• $125,000 per year for an animal trainer to take care of the big cats
• $100,000 per month on jewelry and clothes

He bought homes in Las Vegas, Ohio, and Maryland. He also, at one point, attempted to sell the Connecticut mansion. He listed it in May 1997 for $22 million, roughly $19 million more than he paid a little over a year earlier. He did not get any buyers at that price.

In August 2003, Mike declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In his filing, he listed $5 million worth of assets and $27 million worth of debt. That same year, he finalized his divorce from a woman named Monica Turner. In the divorce, she received the Connecticut mansion.

Monica Turner almost immediately sold the home for $4.1 million. The buyer was…

50 Cent

Earlier in 2003, 50 Cent exploded onto the global stage with his smash-hit single "In Da Club" and accompanying album "Get Rich or Die Trying," which would go on to sell 12 million copies worldwide. 50 proceeded to spend millions on upgrades that included adding a movie theater, pool grotto, and a helipad. In 2007, he gave a tour of the home for "MTV Cribs," which I've embedded below.

I remember this episode of Cribs so well. I didn't even need to rewatch it just now. What stands out most in my mind is the point around the 13-minute mark when 50 showed off his car collection. As you'll see, in addition to several muscle cars, 50's car collection supposedly included:

• Ferrari F50
• Ferrari Enzo
• Ferrari 599

It was almost too perfect. 50 Cent owned a mansion whose address is 50 Popular Hill Drive. That spanned 50,000 square feet. And one of the garages housed an F50…. or did it?

Over the years, it been alleged that 50 did not own the Ferraris he showed during Cribs. I'm a bit of a Ferrari nut and spent some time down a rabbit hole of Ferrari forums trying to get to the bottom of this controversy. According to one thread, the cars were owned by a neighbor, a wealthy collector whose initials were apparently "SC." If I were a betting man, I would wager that "SC" is Silas Chou. Silas and business partner Lawrence Stroll earned their respective multi-billion-dollar net worths as the owners of fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, and Karl Lagerfeld. Silas and Lawrence both own F50s (as well as dozens of other Ferraris apiece). They also co-own Aston Martin. Not an Aston Martin. Aston Martin, the company. But I digress. Point is, 50 probably didn't own those cars.

50's Money Troubles

50 Cent first tried to offload the Connecticut estate in 2007 for $18.5 million without success. He cycled the home on and off the market for the next few years, typically asking $9,999,999. He didn't get any buyers, and unfortunately, in July 2015, the estate's bankruptcy curse struck again!

50 Cent declared bankruptcy in July 2015, listing debts of $36 million and assets of $16 million. In subsequent legal filings, 50 described the Connecticut home as a financial albatross costing him nearly $70,000 every month just for maintenance and utilities. 50's bankruptcy plan eventually included selling the house. He finally unloaded it in April 2019 for $2.9 million.

2019 – The Present

The buyer in 2019 was a Florida businessman named Casey Askar. Askar apparently made his fortune owning fast food franchises, notably several Dunkin' Donuts. The Askars just listed the home for sale for $9.90 million. They do not appear to be suffering any financial problems, so (fingers crossed), hopefully, the bankruptcy curse has been broken. But all buyers should beware! This home has a very long and sordid financial history.

Btw, the Askar family gave CNBC a tour of the home soon after they bought it: