Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires? Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists, was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Last gm more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach, an investigation into these recently.
Dead Russian billionaires.
It's created by me Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergei Slipchenkov. Sad Oligach is a H eleven production for Kulso Media and Ieheart Radio. July fourth, twenty twenty two, lenning Grad region, near Saint Petersburg, multimillionaire Russian businessman Yuri Voronov sixty one, is taking a swim in his pool at one of his luxury properties. This one a cottage mansion in the wealthy Marine Terraces. Area is surrounded by tall trees in Greenland.
Any urban developments are miles away. It's a peaceful area for rich folk who don't want to be disturbed. As Juri Voronov goes about is downtime, swimming, lounging around relaxing. A man with a gun is sneaking through the trees. He's headed to Voronov's place. Voronov is stood by the side of his pool. The gunman sneaks inside the house, steps out to the pool area and raises his gun to Voronov. He pulls the trigger, several shots ring out. Voronov is hit once in the head. He falls back
into the pool dead. The gunman strangely throws them murder weapon into the pool and leaves the bullet casings on the floor before running off back into the trees. At two pm, Voronov is found floating in the now red water of his swimming pool. Those were the last moments of Yuri Voronov, or at least that's the main story. The other theory is that Voronov committed suicide. He fired the gun several times, which left the multiple casings on the floor. He then shot himself in the head before
falling into the pool. Now to me, this doesn't really make much sense, but it's worth mentioning because news of this shooting in Russia quickly drifted off into the ether. A multi millionaire was found dead in his pool with several bullet casings and the gun left at the scene, but state media largely went quiet on it after that. Essentially, the possibility of suicide was left in the air when the reality is this doesn't look much like a suicide.
The only indication that it might not be a hit is that apparently the gunman wasn't picked up on security cameras at Voronov's home. That's what Russian Knew says anyway. Before his untimely death at his luxury Leningrad cottage, Yurivoranov owned a major logistics company called Astra Shipping. They dealt
with construction installations and of course, shipping projects. Astra had lucrative contracts with two major firms we've come across already in this series, Gazprom and Luke Koyok, the two largest oil and gas companies in Russia. By the time of his death. This made Voronov the fourth Gazprom linked business executive to die in twenty twenty two. By twenty twenty three,
there'd be many more. So, Sergiy, what do we know about Voronov's company, Astra Shipping and it's various connections to Gazprom luke Oil.
From what I'm seeing, it's a separate company, but everywhere it's referred to as like a contractor of gas Prom. They actually have other companies that they claim it's just as partners. So I mean, I don't know exactly what they do, but I'm assuming just people they work with. It includes a bunch of other gas company including Louke Oil. They do summer Arctic shipping. At the time that was basically about four months in the summer where you can
use the northern shipping routes above Russia. It's starting to be a bit more often.
Now so Uri Voronov's Astra Shipping company would take tankers through Arctic seas, moving equipment, materials and freight for Gazprom and luke Oil, who they were partnered with. This is of course a very big job. Creative contracts Astra Shipping had with the gas and oil companies put a lot of money into play, both to be made and lost if anything was mishandled. Voronov seems to have been very much involved with all facets of the business.
It seems like he was the only one in charge. He was a director, but like basically in charge of the company. From what I can tell, it hasn't been updated, nobody's taken over. That's pretty much has been abandoned since he died. And yeah, the company in the last two years lost about one hundred and sixty million rubles. It wasn't super profitable before, like it made a couple of million here there. I think it was most profitable in twenty seventeen, But in the last two years they were
just straight up losing. Like I think it was nineteen million in one year and then sixty the next something like that.
Voronov's Astra Shipping was losing money handover fist. Now, one thing to understand is is that when multimillionaires have one business that's losing money, it's not the same if your average non rich person loses money. Losing money is often part of the ups and downs of big business, and sometimes it's orchestrated that way for tax dodging purposes. Voronov, it seems, though, was under a lot of pressure. This
was serious, This was real. He was apparently drinking heavily in the run up to his murder and complaining regularly to his wife about problems within his business. She told Russian investigators that Voronov believed he'd been conned by contractors and business partners he worked with. He said to his wife that they'd quote behaved dishonorably. He was also arguing with people on the phone.
His wife said, before he went off to the cottage, he was arguing with someone over losing money or owing money, something along those lines.
There were no more specific details on this, but if the partners Voronov was angry about are at Gazprom, one of his major contracts, this is likely relevant. Remember, Gazprom is a major earner for the Kremlin, who owns forty nine percent of it. In twenty twenty two, Gazprom paid the Kremlin and extra eleven billion dollars after record profits of forty five billion dollars. It seems invading Ukraine was very profitable for the Kremlin gas giant. As we've covered
already in this series, you don't mess with Gazprom. Doing so can have you feeling depressed and suicidal and unsteady near high windows. There's no indication though that Juri Voronov was messing with Gazprom. If anything, there's more possible signs that it was the other way around. Perhaps Voronov was involved in something else and me discussed this. The thing is, okay, if your business starts losing money and you're making money
within the law, you go bankrupt. You know, you don't generally end up killed a mysterious circumstances, Like.
You said, yeah, Like you know, there's a lot of companies that they have better years, worse years. They lose money, they bounce back. A bunch of companies lost money during COVID, which is when this company lost money.
Now this is interesting, as Surgery said, looking at the profit records, it's clear that Astra Shipping began to lose money during the COVID pandemic, which spread first in twenty twenty one. The thing is shipping was one of the few industries that thrived during COVID. Ocean freights carriers pulled in estimated profits of one hundred and fifty billion dollars in twenty twenty one. So what happened with Astra Shipping.
They had contracts with some of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world, and yet managed to lose money in the midst of a shipping company gold rush.
Something doesn't add up.
Maybe This is connected to what Yuri Voronov's wife said he was so angry about maybe a deal went wrong and Voronov ended up enraging people you don't want to enrage. Was found dead in his pool with multiple casings on the floor and one bullet in his head.
As we said before.
Though no one was caught on the security cameras when this happened.
There was cameras like in the pool surrounding the property, and so it's kind of like, you know, if somebody killed him and the cameras are there and they weren't like tempered with, it should be pretty clear cut to see like what happened, right, But then they just mentioned that there was cameras and uscations ongoing and no updates since.
Yeah, And I mean, I don't want to jump the gun, but the fact that they say nobody was caught on the cameras suggest to me that maybe they kind of know, or at least they think that there was someone because if it was, okay, this is a straight suicide, I just don't think they would even mention it. Why would you mention that no one was caught on the cameras if someone just lit themselves up at home.
They have camera footage. You look at that and you can tell what happened, like it's pretty clear. It should be pretty clear cut, you know. It's kind of hard to imagine that they were so perfect that they avoided all the security, all the cameras shot a guy nobody heard or found out, and got away with it too. A lot of things had to work out perfectly to just completely get away with this.
Well, yeah, that or someone was paid to basically make the camera footage disappear. If we look at other things that have happened in the cases we've looked at, for example, someone's in a rich gaid community they've found hanged and literally gazprom security or able to push the police out, I think that kind of activity suggests to me at least that it's not actually that far fetched that, yeah,
someone could have easily got paid off. Someone could have just said, hey, don't worry about looking at those cameras tonight.
I don't know. I don't think that's too far out of the realms of possibility.
It doesn't even have to be any like conspiracy theory. Everybody's working together. Like in Russia, it's pretty common to give bribes for stuff. They honestly could have just been like, hey, here's some money, gave me the recordings, don't think about it. Of course, we don't know if that happens, but that's completely within the realm of possibility.
Of course, this is just speculation at this point, but I think it's valid when you look at the other mysterious deaths we've already covered. Still, though things are unclear, Voronov was having money problems, blaming business partners and contractors. He then ends up floating in his pool with a bullet in his head, with multiple shots fired, and the authorities seemingly disinterested in the case. So we looked into the business records of Voronov to see if they might
reveal any new information related to his death. Again, there was little out there, so on a long shot, we checked to see if Voronov was mentioned in the Panama Papers. Turns out he was, or at least the name is in there, attached to several shell companies. We couldn't confirm if it's the same Yuri Voronov as the one we're talking about, but.
It does look likely.
Now if you forgot what the Panama Papers are or haven't heard of them at all. That's probably because most of the people named in them completely got away with their crimes. There were no legal consequences for almost everyone involved. The Panama Papers were published on April third, twenty sixteen, and they contain eleven point five million confidential documents from
Panamanium law firm Mossak Fonseca. These documents detail how rich people across the world had been using secretive offshore bank accounts for illegal purposes such as tax evasion and fraud. Often, shell companies were used to hide money or quietly move it around. The shell company is a firm that's kept dormant and used if and when various financial maneuvers need to be cycled through it, usually to mask the original source of the funds. The shell company has no other purpose.
In the Panama Papers, a Moscow based businessman named Yuri Voronov is linked to several shell companies, including one called Tembusu Holdings. Tembusu Holdings was incorporated on May third, twenty seventeen, and currently has two active directors. Interestingly, the latest confirmation statement for this usually dormant company was submitted May second, twenty twenty three, ten months after the death of Yurivoronov.
The Voronov named in the papers also has a shell company called Gavin Consultants, which is based in the British Virgin Islands and banks in Switzerland. The British Virgin Islands is a tax haven for the rich and powerful. The Council of the European Union has placed the region on a blacklist of non cooperative tax jurisdictions. So if you're rich and you want to avoid tax, that's the place to do it. Now, it's not at all unusual that
some unworth millions will be named in the Panama papers. However, if the Yurivoronov named in them is our guy, I think it's unlikely he committed suicide due to loss of earnings. Clearly he had his fingers in many different pies and likely had a huge amount of money spirited away all across the world in secret accounts. Pretty Much every multi millionaire has this in some capacity. Now, let's take a
look at something more tangible the murder weapon. Yurivoronov was shot dead with a Grand Power T twelve handgun.
This is weird.
The T twelve fires less lethal rounds rubber bullet. This is not a gun manufactured to kill. However, the T twelve Voronov was shot with was converted to fire live rounds. If he was going to shoot himself, why as a rich man, would Voronov go through the trouble of purchasing a less lethal firing gun and then convert it. Frankly, there are much easier ways to commit suicide.
Now.
I've been around a ton of firearms due to my work reporting on war and conflict across the world, and I've never seen even militias or rebels using specifically converted less lethal guns.
In their actions.
Even gorilla forces with limited funding can get their hands on proper firearms.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
In my opinion, there's just no way Voronov wouldn't have been able to purchase a real gun for himself. It's not that hard in Russia. It's not that hard anywhere if you've got the cash and you know the right people.
So to get a better idea of what's.
Going on with this converted T twelve Voronov was shot with, I spoke to Bernardo Paz from War nowir Wunawa is an independent media outlet focused on identifying illicit firearms across the world. What have you found about this Grand Power T twelve, this gun that Uri Vornov was shot with.
Basically, I can say that the Grand Power pistols are generally are actually quite common in the region, and the Model T twelve is actually a less little pistol. It basically produced to fire rubber bullets. It's quite easy to convert these pistols to fire li runs. You know, you can basically convert a blank firing pistol or a traumatic pistol into a real one.
So why would somebody convert a less lethal gun to shoot live rounds to then commit an assassination?
Do you think?
Well, first of all, not only traumatic pistols, but blank firing pistols as well. These are very easy to get and they are much more cheaper than when compared to other real pistols. That's the main reasons why many people prefer buying less lethal or blank firing pistols and convert them into the real ones. It's very easy to access them, you know, they're really cheap, and in some cases they can't be traced back to the real owner. And if the modification which I mean to convert it into a
real pistol. Of course, if a good gun submit does these modifications, and these pistols can be quite reliable for short term usage.
Really, so it's it's not such a big job to convert it.
Now, if you have the required tools and if you know what are you doing, it's quite easy.
Some people have a theory that this guy wasn't shot, he killed himself, despite the fact that there were several rounds, Like several shots were fired. This guy was a multi millionaire. I can't see why a multi millionaire would have a less lethal gun and then convert it to then show himself. That seems unusual to me. What do you think, Yeah, well, it doesn't make sense.
If he wanted to kill himself, he wouldn't get a less little pistol converted into real one.
Yeah, it's weird. Right.
Where are these guns manufactured? What do we know about them? I read that it's a Russian gun, but then I also aware that it's it was made in Slovakia, but some of them are made the TI twelve made in Russia.
What's the reality that.
Yeah, in general, the brand is originated from Slovakia. However, these pistols are exported to many countries, including Russia, any country you name it. They are quite easy to find in many countries. They can be considered quite cheap brand when you compare to other brands. They're also quite common among some non state armed groups in Russia as well. It's not originated from Russia, but it's common in there too. The gunpower has a branch in Russia too.
This is particularly important as pass just said, converted grand power T twelves are common enough amongst non state armed groups in Russia, specifically in this instance, he's talking about armed criminal organizations. This is sounding more and more like a hit that someone paid for Voronov to be killed due to whichever dispute was bothering him before his death. Once the gun is converted from the less lethal defense gun into a live round firing gun like a a gun, what rounds.
Do they shoot? What bullets will it shoot? Then?
Well, it is almost impossible to say anything definite because that can be different warrants. But I can say that most of the converted guns are usually chambered in torty two ACP.
Toty two ACP.
Is a name for the ammunition that seven point six to five. They were quite common in some countries. You know, some brownique pistols, water pistols are shambled in this runt. It's basically much smaller than nine millimeters and they're easy to fit to make signe and the pistol when you rebel it. It's spread common in many countries, including Krushia.
Right.
I just it's really odd to me that anyone, whether they kill themselves or whether someone goes to kill someone, that they would use a converted pistol. I mean, it's not exactly hard to get hold of a gun in Russia. It's not hard to get hold of a gun really anywhere.
Have you any theories.
As to why they would have would have used this weapon to kill somebody with?
Yeah, First of all, they might have chosen this pistol because they may want to abandoned pistols or destroy it as soon as they carry out the assassination.
So, according to Puz, who dedicates his time to identifying firearms and understanding their use in a specific text, converted T twelve is useful if you want to commit an assassination and then dispose of the weapon. Remember, this is exactly what happened at Voronov's cottage. He was shot and the gun was thrown into the pool with him, But why would you leave the gun there at the actual scene?
Guns can be often traced back to the person who used it, apparently, though not so much if it's a converted less lethal gun.
Chasing the countered pistols, you know, it's more hard to chase it compared to the real pistols. So these are the most common theories in my opinion.
That's really interesting.
It might interest you to know as well that once the shooter, which it's pretty clear to me that the guy was shot by somebody, once the shooter shot this oligarch fella, they threw the gun into the swimming pool. They didn't take it with them, They threw it, they discarded it.
If it was a real gun, let's say, a Beretta or a Carol, let's say, it would be much more easier to check this pistol to original owner, Mitch. Might it cause some more problems for the guy who shut the oligarch in the pool?
You know, right, I don't know if it's any bearing on it. But do you know if chlorinated water, you know, the pool, would that have any kind of relevance in removing any forensics from a gun or anything.
Do you think, well, I don't think that the pul water or the chemical compounds related to topic. I think they basically wanted to dispose the pistol because it would be more easy to claim that the guy shut himself.
I think Pezz is onto something here. It's looking more and more like the converted Grand Power T twelve is a perfect gun for a quick assassination. It's easy to buy in Russia, easy to convert, it's common, there's load of them in circulation, and it's hard to trace it.
Back to anyone.
Maybe the business partners who Voronov told his wife were quote behaving dishonorably went a step further into their Dishonor maybe they hired a hitman from one of the many criminal networks in Russia to murder Voronov. Perhaps they told the guy to make it look like a suicide. The gunman messed up. He chose a gun that wouldn't be traced back to him, the converted T twelve, because he'd leave the murder weapon at the scene to make.
It look like a suicide.
In choosing the T twelve, though, he made it look suspicious, that and the multiple gunshots. It's a theory, but I think it's quite solid. It's either that or it's all just another coincidence.
S me discuss this.
So if it is just a coincidence, basically, you just have to kind of accept that working within the gas and oil industry in Russia in a big scale, one of the hazards of the job is you might have a mysterious death.
It's funny you mentioned that.
I was just reading comments and somebody was saying, nobody thinks of the occupational hazards of being a rich oil like Oligarch or whatever, kind of making fun of how many people, how many of them you know, have died.
Yeah, I mean it's weird. One is nothing, two is a bit odd. But if you look at the stage where all of these mysterious deaths that we've covered already, I don't know if it was me, i'd be worried about my line of work.
Yeah, I mean literally, I think at that point when somebody commented, that would have been like four or six months and about five or seven people linked to this have died. You know, there's a lot of connections to Gus Prom. One of the first guys was connected to transport, like the transports of gas Prompt. Then the other guy was security again gas Prom.
As well as dead rich Russian businessman connected to Gazprom. There were other connections to recently deceased people in Voronov's sphere of interest, specifically in the Arctic, where astro shipping was very active.
We haven't talked about these guys yet, but actually there's two of the guys from Russia's like government department, almost like the Arctic Development Fund. There's the two guys, one guy where he there's an ego Nosov. He actually died on February eighth, and seemingly he has like one of the more likely to be a natural scenario. But then his coworker dies a couple months later in the boat crash, like his boat goes missing, his body is found like
washed up somewhere. They're both linked to like Arctic development and stuff. So I mean, all these guys seem to be like in resource extraction, transport, those kind of things. So I mean, again that's exactly the tightest connections, but it's all kind of like close enough that it's like, again, so many of them are dying in this seemingly safe profession.
If it's a coincidence, it's, you know, maybe time to get out of that line of industry if you can, And maybe some of these guys tried to, and this is what happened.
Maybe, as with the other cases, this one is somewhat left up in the air if you put this all together in a web. Though, so many people in this line of work who've had their lives cut short recently are connected in some way, all within twenty twenty two. Let's look at the timeline. April twenty ninth, Leonoid Shulman, Gazprom Transport executive, death by suicide. He slashed his wrists in the bath. February twenty fifth. Alexander Tyolokov, Gazprom Security executive, death by suicide.
He hanged himself in his garage. April nineteenth.
Sergey Protozenya Novtech Gas Company executive, death by suicide. He killed his family and then himself.
May eighth.
Alexander Sabotchin lou Coil board member, death by poisoning. He died after being administered frog Venom July fourth, Yuri Voronov, contractor to both Gazprom and lou Coil death by gunshot.
He died via a bullet through the head.
All of this happened within the space of seven months, and there's much more we'll hear about in the rest of the series. Make of this what you will, but to me, it seems that being a rich Russian businessman connected to the country's energy companies is very bad for your health. Sad Oliger is a H eleven production for cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio. Hosted, produced, researched and edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergei Slipchenko. Co produced by
Sophie Lichtmint. Music by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle, sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to Jakeanrahan dot com for more information.