Who is Christopher LaVoie? Man behind ‘4 Days’ reality shows has history of run-ins with police, dubious business ventures, and a series of run-ins with family members. And now? Well, LaVoie is an actual, live, 4-star luxury hotel under construction across the street from the White House.
Christopher LaVoie, president of LaVoie Management Co. Inc., is one of the most prominent names in luxury real estate. His company has been building luxury hotels for nearly a century, and his company’s latest property, a 28-room hotel in Washington, D.C., is now the largest building in the city’s developmentally challenged central section.
LaVoie, 53, is a former lawyer turned multi-millionaire who has built an impressive and lucrative career as a hotelier. He also has had run-ins with law enforcement, as well as other controversies that have drawn public scrutiny from his business partner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The latest involves LaVoie’s business with a Russian oligarch. In 2015, LaVoie’s company bought the St. George Island Resort and Casino in Barbados, a 4,500-acre resort known as the site of numerous scandals and allegations. LaVoie’s business partner with the resort was Dmitry Rybolovlev, the billionaire head of investment firm VTB.
The purchase was described as “an act of generosity” on Rybolovlev’s part. The purchase was described as “a bold, positive move to make sure that St. George Island can be preserved as an ecologically and socially diverse resort to keep it connected with the Caribbean and the United States.” But the New York Times has reported that LaVoie’s company bought the resort with the intention of “buying for the Russian oligarch at least some of the most expensive land in the world.”
LaVoie reportedly paid Rybolovlev $50 million, paid with funds from his company’s partnership with Rybolovlev.
But that was not the end of the partnership, according to the Times’ investigation. The paper reported that LaVoie’s company also paid money to the
