• Andrei Vavilov has officially exited the Plaza. The Russian financier, who sued the Plaza last year to get out of buying a $53.5 million penthouse spread—and ended up paying $11 million for a smaller apartment as part of a legal settlement—has taken a loss on the sale. Vavilov sold the apartment to an heir to the Goya Foods fortune for $8.4 million. [NYO]
• Investor Paul Cejas has dropped the price of his apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue, five months after he listed it for $18.5 million. The fifth-floor co-op is now on the market for $16.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Leona Helmsley's former Greenwich mansion has gotten another price chop. The 40-acre estate known as Dunnellen Hall is now $60 million, which is a whole lot less than its original listing price of $125 million. [Luxist, DO&A]
• Brandon Fradd, founder of the hedge fund Apollo Medical Partners, has sold his apartment at 68 Jane Street. The three-bedroom that Fradd listed for $4.45 million back in February sold for $3.7 million. [Cityfile]

• The buyer who paid $37 million for Gerhard Andlinger's penthouse at the Time Warner Center—setting the record as the biggest real estate deal in 2009 thus far—has been revealed. It's Andrei Vavilov, the Russian financier who agreed to buy two penthouses at the Plaza last year for $53.5 million, but ended up suing the developer after his wife wasn't pleased with the "attic-like" ceilings. (As part of a settlement, Valvilov agreed to purchase just one of the two apartments, and he's since gone into contract to sell it.) Hopefully, Vavilov's wife is happier with her husband's latest acquisition. The full-floor, five-bedroom penthouse on the 78th floor encompasses 8,300 square feet and comes with 14-foot ceilings. [NYT]

• It turns out Madonna scored a rather sweet deal on the East 81st Street townhouse she went into contract to purchase in April. The Material Girl paid $32.5 million for the 13-bedroom manse, which is about 28 percent less than the $45 million asking price that the house was listed for back in October. [NYT, previously]
• After nearly a year on the market—and three price cuts—writer/director John Ridley has finally found a buyer for his condo at 15 Central Park West. The 2,237-square-foot apartment had been listed most recently for $8.5 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]

• Russian financier Andrei Vavilov has already lowered the price of his notorious three-bedroom penthouse at Plaza (left). Just a month after putting it on the market for $12.5 million, it has now been reduced to $9.95 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Now that they're Washington-bound, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his wife Carole have put their five-bedroom home in Larchmont on the market for $1.635 million. [NYP, CB]
• Gilt Groupe men's director John Auerbach and Andrew Black, an editor-at-large at Quest magazine, have paid $1.9 million for a fourth-floor apartment at 255 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]

The craziness at the Plaza continues. In September, Russian financier Andrei Vavilov sued the Plaza to get back the $10.7 million deposit he plunked down on two penthouse apartments. Developer El-Ad countersued, and last week the two sides reached a compromise: As part of the deal, Vavilov paid $11 million for the smaller of the two penthouses that he'd originally planned to buy, in lieu of getting his deposit back. But that doesn't mean you'll be seeing Vavilov around the Plaza in the future. He's already re-listed the 2,906-square-foot spread with Brenda Powers and Elizabeth Lee Sample of Brown Harris Stevens for $12.5 million. [NYO, BHS]

It may be cold and dreary today, but it's all warm and fuzzy inside the Plaza! Okay, maybe not, but Russian financier Andrei Vavilov and El-Ad Properties have settled their respective lawsuits. (Vavilov, as you may recall, paid $53.5 million for a triplex in the building and then filed suit to get his $10.7 million deposit back; El-Ad countersued shortly thereafter.) Terms of the settlement are confidential, but Vavilov's lawyer says his client is "very pleased with the outcome." Nice to hear someone has something to be happy about today! [City Room]

Remember Andrei Vavilov, the Russian hedge fund manager who sued the owners of the Plaza for "unobstructed floor to ceiling windows," "lower-than-represented ceiling heights," and "unappealing drainage grates," and asked for his $10 million deposit back plus another $30 million in damages? Well, now El-Ad, the company that controls the luxe condo building, is countersuing, accusing Vavilov of filing a "sham lawsuit" and for defamation. [Curbed, NYP]

Meet Russian financier Andrei Vavilov, who paid a mere $53.5 million for a triplex penthouse at the Plaza and is now suing to get his $10.7 million deposit back. His complaints? "Unobstructed floor to ceiling windows," "lower than represented ceiling heights," and "unappealing drainage grates." Good luck with that. [NYO]