Another Russian billionaire has died under mysterious circumstances.
After days of questions from the international press, the Russian government on Monday confirmed the death of Forex Club founder Vyacheslav Taran in a helicopter crash last week near his home in southeastern France.
"The Russian Embassy confirms the death of Vyacheslav Taran in a helicopter crash that occurred on Friday in the area of Villefranche-sur-Mer commune," Alexander Makogonov, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Paris, told the state news agency TASS. "Representatives of the Russian Consulate in Villefranche-sur-Mer are staying in touch with the family of the deceased to settle all administrative matters."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
While little is known about what caused the crash, local media noted in initial reports last Friday that the crash occurred in fair weather, with an experienced pilot who was familiar with the area at the helm of an Airbus H130, a multimillion-dollar touring aircraft considered to be top-of-the-line around the world.
Others, meanwhile, can only speculate what caused the death of yet another high-profile figure within the Russian business community.
Since the start of the year, more than a dozen Russian businessmen representing industries like fossil fuels, transportation and media have died under sometimes-suspicious circumstances, with several bearing histories of criticism toward the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.
Several cryptocurrency giants have met their demise in recent weeks. Last week, 30-year-old Hong Kong businessman Tiantian Kullander died suddenly in his sleep amid speculation that the company he founded, the Amber Group, was on the verge of closing on a significant, multimillion-dollar investment.
Weeks earlier, 29-year-old Russian cryptocurrency developer Nikolai Mushegian reportedly drowned while swimming off a beach in Puerto Rico after publishing a paranoid screed about threats to his life on his Twitter page. Local authorities later determined there was no foul play suspected in his death, though they did find a small laceration on his skull.
Taran, some Russian sources speculated, had made his own share of enemies related to his cryptocurrency business—a sector that has gained newfound importance in the country as international sanctions stemming from Russia's war in Ukraine have crippled the national currency.
On Monday, the pro-Russian news site L!FE published an article with no sources quoted suggesting Taran had ripped off customers in his operation's day-to-day business dealings, noting that the Bank of Russia canceled the licenses of his exchanges for "repeated violations of securities laws by companies."
"Only officially, these five forex dealers owe their investors 35 million rubles," the outlet wrote. "How much money was pulled out of the wallets of Russian citizens in reality, no one knows. That is why Taran has many dissatisfied clients and enemies in Russia, who could well get him abroad."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Reynolds is a senior politics reporter at Newsweek. A native of Central New York, he previously worked as a ... Read more
