Tycoon denies buying most expensive home

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov denied yesterday French media reports he had bought the world's most expensive home, a French Mediterranean villa.

Newspapers said on Monday Prokhorov, 43, paid 496 million euros ($730.4 million) for a property in southern France called Villa Leopolda, built in 1902 for Belgian King Leopold II.

But Prokhorov's spokesman said the magnate was not behind the deal and said his boss would not do business in France until authorities apologize for briefly detaining him in a prostitution probe last year in the sky resort of Courchevel.