Russian businessman Sergey Karshkov has died at the age of 42 after a medical mishap in Switzerland, Russian animator Pavel Muntyan said in a post on Facebook.
"I can't believe [it]... I have a lump in my throat. It just can't be! How so?" said Muntyan, a producer at Russian animation studio Toonbox said on Wednesday. "Sergey was one of the most athletic and healthy people I knew! Like a bull!"
According to Muntyan, Karshkov died in a Swiss clinic after a medical examination. The MRI fluid allegedly caused an allergic reaction, after which he fell into a coma and died.
"He went to Switzerland for a checkup... Contrasting fluids for MRI and the subsequent MRI led first to allergies, then to a coma, and then to death," he wrote. "Oh my god what a nightmare!! A NIGHTMARE!"
Karshkov, a founder of the Cyprus-based online bookmaker 1xBet, was born in Ukraine's Kyiv region in 1980 and later moved to Bryansk in Russia, where he headed the department for combating cybercrime in the regional department of Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Russia's Investigative Committee placed Karshkov on a wanted list in 2020 for the illegal organization and conduct of gambling, independent Latvia-based Russian news outlet Meduza reported.
Russian news outlets reported that Karshkov and his partner Roman Semikhoin founded the 1xBet online bookmaker. However, he was accused by Russia's Investigative Committee of carrying out activity illegally, without a license, and of laundering money through the structure.
Сергей Каршков (founder 1XBET) RIP... 42 года 😫Я не могу поверить... У меня ком в горле стоит. Этого просто не может быть!!! Как так? Серега был один из самых спортивных и здоровых людей, которых я...
In 2016, the pair moved to Cyprus, and the Investigative Committee arrested them in absentia and placed them on an international wanted list.
Semiokhin spoke to Forbes Russia in 2021 about the bookmaker and said that he began his move to Cyprus long before he began problems with the law, back in 2014.
"The situation was incomprehensible," the businessman said, adding that it became "more comfortable" to build an international project outside of Russia.
Forbes noted that it was in 2014 that Russian authorities began to target online bookmakers.
"We are number one in Africa, we are in the top three in Latin America," Semiokhin said, adding that he and Karshkov do not own the 1xBet trademark, including in Russia.
Karshkov told the news outlet that his focus at the time was on marketing and promoting the bookmaker "in different territories."
Newsweek has contacted 1xBet via email for comment.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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