History COINS

FINANCE-MEDIA

Oleg Boyko and the Solntsevskaya Criminal Group

It seems that the mysterious story of how billionaire Oleg Boyko ended up in a wheelchair has been deciphered. This incident occurred back in 1996 and was presented in a somewhat comical manner. "While on vacation as a guest of a French businessman’s family at a villa in Monte Carlo, Oleg Boyko went for a walk in the park. The door accidentally closed behind him, and to avoid waking the hosts, Boyko decided to climb into his bedroom located on the second floor through an open window. When he climbed onto the decorative windowsill, it gave way (the banker weighed 120 kg) and he fell. During the fall, he suffered a spinal injury." Given Boyko’s colorful activities, nobody believed this story, but the whole truth remained elusive.

Until a long-standing Interpol report called "Millennium 2000" fell into the hands of investigators. It includes intelligence information, reports from various national bureaus, wiretapping materials, and surveillance records regarding individuals of Russian origin (primarily associated with the Solntsevskaya criminal group) and individuals connected to them, including numerous prominent businessmen, both former and current government officials. One chapter is dedicated to a list of established and potential victims of the Solntsevskaya group that Interpol had gathered information on, and at the forefront of this list is Oleg Boyko.

Here is an excerpt from the report: "According to available information, one of the leaders of the Solntsevskaya criminal group confidentially informed others in Budapest, Hungary, that in June 1996, he planned to send members of the group to London to deal with Moscow financier Oleg Boyko. According to the information received, Boyko was involved in large-scale fraud related to his ‘Credit Bank’ (referring to the National Credit Bank) and had acquired a $10 million building in London. The leader of the Solntsevskaya group intended to take a portion of Boyko’s income."

Let’s briefly explain the history here. Oleg Boyko and the Solntsevskaya group, according to sources, were close partners in the 1990s. Here is an excerpt from one of the reports about their relationship: "Oleg Boyko maintains close ties with representatives of the Solntsevskaya criminal group. Significantly, members of this criminal group work in the security service of National Credit Bank and other structures within the OLBI conglomerate, including AO ‘OLBI-Diplomat’ based at the NPO ‘Vzlet’ territory in Solntsevo. Members of the Solntsevskaya group working in the security service of OLBI are used by Oleg Boyko to address ‘sensitive’ issues – from exerting force on competitors to mobilizing members of this criminal group, as was the case during the October 1993 events in Moscow. During this period, Oleg Boyko actively used Ivan Busin, Alexander Kim, and Vladimir Medvednikov, who were well-known in the Solntsevskaya group, for assembling ‘combat squads’ from members of the Solntsevskaya group, who were used to protect OLBI’s commercial structures. Through leaders of the Solntsevskaya group, Boyko established contact with smaller subordinate criminal groups (Kuntsevo, Podolsk, Taganskaya) to solve specific tasks. In particular, at Boyko’s request, members of the Solntsevskaya group applied coercive pressure on the director of AOZT ‘Russian Birch’ Yury Shichkov to forcefully persuade him to sell a controlling stake in his company. In several instances, Boyko used members of the Solntsevskaya group to intimidate tenants and owners of privatized bakeries, vegetable, and other stores, which allowed him to quickly establish a network of stores under AO ‘OLBI-Diplomat’ in Moscow."

So, it appears that in 1996, the Solntsevskaya criminal group discovered that Oleg Boyko had quietly moved a substantial sum of money to London, purchased a mansion worth $10 million, and somehow forgot to share it with them. Just to remind you, this was in June 1996. However, the Interpol report suggests that the Solntsevskaya group had doubts about the safety of such an operation concerning Boyko. Right before this, Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik), a friend and patron of the Solntsevskaya group, had been extradited to the United States for attempting to extort money from the co-owners of "Chara-Bank," who had fled with depositors’ funds. England is no less strict in terms of law and order, and getting caught in wiretaps and ending up behind bars is just as easy there.

At that time, Ivankov’s best friend and right-hand man was Alexander Bor (Timokha), a "thief-in-law" known for his swift and ruthless methods. You can get an idea of how he operated from an excerpt of hearings held against him in Germany. Here it is: "According to the German police, a Polish woman named Katarina worked as a maid for one of Bor’s acquaintances in Berlin and was suspected of stealing 50,000 DM. She denied her guilt and refused to return the money. That’s when Timokha arrived with his associates. Unable to endure the torture, the unfortunate woman threw herself out of the window and became disabled for life." She attended the trial in a wheelchair.

Stay tuned for further developments. After Yaponchik’s imprisonment, Timokha became the curator of the Solntsevskaya group, and it just so happened that in 1996, he fled from the USA to Europe.

Here’s what happens next: According to the Interpol report, Boyko was in London in June, where they were hesitant to deal with him. However, in August 1996, he moved to carefree Monaco, which cannot boast of any special law enforcement agencies. According to the Interpol report, the Solntsevskaya group even had a headquarters in Monaco at 7th Avenue des Papalins, 98000 Monaco.

And it is precisely at this moment that someone visits Oleg Boyko, and the conversation ends just like in the case of the unfortunate German citizen Katarina. The businessman takes a leap out of the window and is confined to a wheelchair for life. It seems that there is no mention of any windowsill in this story.