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 year, 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 Sergey Slipchenkov. Sad Oligach is a h eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. As we spoke about in the previous episode, Dan Rappaport fell to his death from the window of his luxury DC apartment on August fourteenth, twenty twenty two, nine stories to the concrete. He was dead at this His wife said she doesn't think it
was a suicide. He showed no signs of depression or panic, and he had business meetings lined up that week, as well as a lunch date planned with her the following day. There is, however, the strange case of Rappaport's dog and an alleged suicide note attached to the dog's collar. Dan Rappaport owned a Ukraine rescue dog named Boy. According to a Russian sauce which we'll talk about later, Rappaport sent out Boy to the park before he plummeted to his death.
Boy allegedly had a suicide note and cash attached to his collar, the idea being that whoever found the dog would find the note and for some reason, the cash. This is completely bizarre. If you're going to take your life via jumping from the window of your own apartment, why would you not just leave the suicide note on the side, put it on the kitchen counter, leave it on the coffee table, literally, anything would be more reliable then attaching it to your dog and letting him out
into the streets. And what kind of lunatic lets their dog loose into the city like that. Rappaport went to the effort of saving Boy, bringing him back to the US with him from Ukraine, which is a complicated process. I find it hard to believe he'd then leave Boy to the mercy of the streets where he could get hit by a car stolen or put into the dog pound. This whole scenario makes no sense. It does start to make sense though, when you consider the source, but we'll
come back to that later. First, Sergei Jeff. In January twenty seventeen, Russian businessman Sergei to Kachenko aka Sergei Jeff, fell from the window of his luxury Moscow apartment. This wasn't your usual Russian window plummet, though, this one was caught on camera. In the grainy camera pH and footage, Sergei Jef can be seen hanging from the window of his apartment about fifty feet up. He's wearing black trousers, a gray sweater, and looks to have no shoes on.
In broad daylight, Jeff is stood there, perched with his feet on the sill of the window below him and with his hands holding the upper sill of his own apartment window. It's a precarious scene, to say the least. Someone inside the apartment is at the window trying to help.
Apparently this was Sergei Jeff's girlfriend. The story goes that the two had been having a blazing argument and that Sergei Jeff decided to literally climb out of the window of their apartment to hang from the building in a bid to scare his girlfriend, presumably some kind of messed up threat to kill himself if she left him, or something like that. As my guess, at least in the footage, Sergei Jeff loses his footing and begins to flail with
just his hands holding onto the window. His girlfriend moves back into the apartment out of sight, perhaps looking for something to assist her boyfriend. Before long, Sergei Jeff loses his grip and of course falls to his death. He was pronounced dead at the scene, with Russian emergency workers bundling his corpse into a black bag on the pavement. Several photos of this were circulated. The Russian authorities attributed his death to what is essentially misadventure. I'm really not
sure what to make of this. That Dan Rappaport died the same way as his soho room's business partner is extremely suspicious when you take into account all the other factors, such as Rappaport's anti Putinism, the taxi old, the Kremlin, and his proximity to US politicians. After watching the footage of Sergei Jeff falling to his death, though it does just feel like an accident, making it possibly an incredibly unlikely but actual coincidence. Is that or someone sent the
world's most inept hitman after Sergei Jeff. If you're going to fling someone out of a window to assassinate them, daylight is surely not the ideal moment to do so. Also, a full shove out the window, as in keeping it all in one movement, seems like the optimal way to do so. Now. I've never pushed anyone out of a window, and I don't intend to, but I imagine leaving a person perched on the windowsill for a few minutes is not only harder to do, but less effective than the aforementioned
full shove. That said, if there ever was a way to make a death look like an accident, this convoluted window method might be ideal. I don't know. I'm not an assassin. It does seem unlikely to me that Sergei Jeff was murdered, though, unless maybe someone else was inside the apartment alongside Jeff's girlfriend and she was in on it. There's no evidence that's the case. Though, this really might
just be a massive coincidence, So whatever happened. We do know that Dan Rappaport met the same fate as Sergei jeff a higher fall from his own apartment window. Rapperport's situation is a lot murkier, though, Whilst on the surface Rappaport might seem like a bit of a soft target for perhaps a Kremlin linked hit that out of the factors at play that could make him a target for Oligarch violence. During the months leading up to his death, Dan Rappaport was openly complaining about a sour deal with
a Russian venture capital firm. He'd apparently been stiffed out of around ten thousand dollars details of scarce. From what I can gather, Rappaport either invested in or was owe the money by an unnamed Russian BC company. Yes, he was doing business with Russia in twenty twenty two, even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine raged on, something Rappaport was very openly opposed to. Now you might be wondering why a multimillionaire would care about a ten thousand dollars loss.
I think in this case it's quite simple. It's the principle of it. He didn't care so much about the money, but he did care about getting screwed on a deal. That's pretty straightforward and I think understandable. Rappaport wanted to drag this Russian VC company through the mud to try
and ruin their reputation after they messed him around. In April twenty twenty two, he posted about this VC scenario on his Facebook page, somewhere he was often very vocal and active, and he messaged a friend about it, saying, quote, I need a small favor. I just posted on Facebook about a Russian BC firm trying to screw me for ten K. I would really appreciate if you could like and or comment on it. I don't expect to get paid, but I want to maximize their public embarrassment. Ends quote.
Whilst little more is known about this situation, it does show that Rappaport had more than a few active dispute links to Russia. At the time of his death, the Kremlin had shut down some of his businesses and accused him of tax evasion. He was openly backing one of Putin's biggest enemies, with Navali. He supported Ukraine. He was a vocal critic of Putin's authoritarian rule he had a dispute with a Russian VC firm, and he even worked with the US government to try to increase Western sanctions
on Putin. Rappaport was not in the Kremlins good books, to say the least. He was a high profile Putin critic, and by association was a problem for anyone who thrives under Putin's iron rule, as he had done for several years. Despite his constant agitation against the Russian state and his many dealings within it in the past, Rappaport did not keep a low profile. He was bombastic in his messaging
and frankly a bit of a show off. He'd often be photographed on the socialite scene, frequenting upmarket venues in his expensive suits and designer glasses. He'd post for photos outside the White House wearing a Ukraine badge on the lapel of his suit. In the months before his death, he posted photos of himself surrounded by beautiful women in the shanky Connaught Hotel in London. A room there costs
over five hundred pounds a night. Rappaport was a businessman who enjoyed the finer things in life, and he wanted you to know about it. What he shared, though, was what he wanted out there. What he hid was quite different. Rappaport had a serious secret identity. In twenty eighteen, four years before Rappaport died, a DC based journalist named Alexei Kuzumenko dug into the background of a man named David Duberg. David Duberg was a senior Pentagon analyst on Russia released
that's what he claimed. Many journalists claim this about duw Berg too, citing his work without question. David Duberg ran a popular Facebook page and he was regularly quoted in the media as a Pentagon insider when it came to Ukraine and Russia. However, the journalist Kuzumenko discovered that du Berg was not quite who he claimed to be. Kuzumenko didn't want to be interviewed for sad Oligarch for whatever reason, but his work on this is very revealing in itself.
It seems that David Duberg, the Pentagon insider often cited as a real life analyst, was actually a persona set up by Dan Rappaport. Not only that, but to keep the ruse looking authentic, Rappaport falsified identification dot Com documents, including a Pentagon idcat. This is a crime in the US and could get you as many as three years in prison. What the hell was Dan? Rapoport up to the David Duburg alter ego have made an appearance online.
In April twenty sixteen, Ukrainian new site named Dialogue dot ua announced that Duwburg would be writing for them. They said that he was an American soldier analyst, military history specialist, officer of the US Army, political consultant of the US State Department, Department of Defense, and national security analyst. The full ticket Dialogue dot yua went into great detail about this fake new writer David Duberg. They spoke about his parents,
his high school, and how he was raised. They said Duburg had been previously deployed to Somalia, Yemen, Kosovo, Afghanistan, in Iraq. He was a lieutenant colonel before becoming a senior analyst for the US Department of Defense. They even included a photo of du Berg, a muscular white guy dressed in olive drab and a backwards cap, and the photo is leaning over one side of his pickup truck
with one hand cuddling his dog. Wholesome based on his forearms. Alauren, This supposed Duberg character looks like he can bench four plates with ease. He's pretty much a routine tooting US soldier archetype. Compare this to Dan Rappaport. A man had never been to war, he was skinny, and he wore slim fits suits and shirts with loose buttons. Was David Duberg Dan Rappaport's tyler Durdham, I want you to hit me as hard as a key In the article, it
says quote. From spring twenty fifteen to Autumn twenty seventeen, du Berg maintained a popular Facebook page written predominantly in fluent though somewhat Americanized Russian, with occasional posts in English. The Facebook was originally started in May twenty fifth Dean and quickly began its rise to prominence. This was a time when President Obama maintained a relatively reserved stance towards Russi's aggression in Ukraine. We s them peaked in February
twenty fifteen with the Battle of de Boltzeburg. Many in Ukraine and those among Russian anti poutine circles sought a stronger stance from America against the Kremlin, either through direct action or in rhetoric. Du Burg presented as a public source from within the Pentagon, appeared to fill the latter role. Along with his Facebook profile, du Burg maintained a public LinkedIn account, a Google Plus profile, and a website at
du Burg's list dot com. Du Burg's LinkedIn profile bolstered a sense of legitimacy, where he displayed his connections with a number of well known Russia watchers, including Michael mcfull, the former US Ambassador to Russia, David Satter, a prominent American Russia expert and historian, and Mark Golotti, a prominent kremlinologist, and many others. Furthermore, he had a number of endorsements for various skills, a feature in LinkedIn that gave his
profile a sense of authenticity ends quote. So through David Duberg, Dan Rappaport was building a fictional yet highly believable profile of an anti Putin Pentagon analyst with all the right credentials. David Duberg was an intelligent, tough guy who was heavily critical of the Kremlin. Problem was, he didn't exist. David Duberg's Facebook page was a collection of boomer esque Patriot type iconography, not far Ride or anything like that, just
your average West is Best type vibe through Duburg. Rappaport was at that time promoting US Russian friendship with a Facebook banner of what is one of the worst designs I have ever seen in my entire life. It's two hands reaching out fist bumping with a pen in the middle of them that's made out of a bullet. The left fist is painted in an American flag and the right fist is painted with a Russian flag. It looks like a gas station energy drink. It is an absolute disaster,
and in that way, it's kind of perfect. That said, the page does look very legit. The bio says, quote, I'm a veteran of the United States Forces. I'm of Russian descent. I blog on history. I wrote the truth and facts all that is being hidden from Russians by the Russian state media. Ends quote. There are numerous other photos of this supposed David dubog fella with other people. There are photos of this guy wearing military dress uniform, dripping in medals, a photo of him carrying a leopard
for some reason, and a front line looking photo. He's in full deployment gear, helmet, body armor and of course sunglasses. But he has a Freemason patch Velt roode onto his chest drink. The Freemasons being a global secret also pretty much open society, made up of usually wealthy men of some public standing. Conspiracy theorists think that they rule the world. In reality, whilst they are a huge club of well connected people, they're not that powerful. Freemasonry can and has, however,
become a breeding ground for elitist cliques. In my decade of reporting from front lines across the world with regular soldiers, militias, paramilitary forces, you name it, I have never ever seen a Freemason patch. I've seen many different patches, I actually collect them, but I have never seen a free Mason patch in a conflict zone. Naturally, that stood out to me clearly. The guy Rapperport, howevers, did these images from,
was associated with Freemasonry. Either way, Rappaport did a very good job of deceiving people with the David Duberg profile, but didn't exist. So who is in the photos? It's Steve Ferrow, one of Dan Rappaport's college friends. This guy isn't Russian, He's from Texas. In fact, in some of the counterfeit juburg id cards Rapperport had made. The ID photo of Duburg is poorly photoshopped from group photos of Ferro. This level of deception is a lot of work, but
to what end. Let's hear what Kuzomenko wrote about this quote. Kasenya Kirilova, a Russian journalist who was relocated to the United States, was an early witness to the rise of David Duberg's profile and influence online in the growing interest, especially among those in anti Kremlin activist and opposition circles in the United States. Kirilova said that in twenty fifteen, everyone in the close knit Russian opposition community in the US was talking about David Duberg, the new vocal anti
poutin Pentagon official. Kirilova said that in twenty fifteen, being a fresh arrival to America after immigrating to the country a year earlier, she struggled to connect to established American experts in her field of Kremlin and propaganda studies. Her friends in her new home, including other members of the
Russian opposition community, pointed her to Dubug. As Kirilova describes, Duburg was highly effective as a tool of counter propaganda during the heights of Kremlin organized this information campaigns, David Duberg enjoyed tremendous support from numerous individuals. On occasions he posted materials that really could highlight Russia's state under Putin.
He was supported not because the public was dumb. He enjoyed support of smart, decent people who use some of the material he provided in their own online argument with pro pouting crowds. David Duburg endeared himself to many within Russia's opposition and in Ukraine when in the summer of twenty sixteen he penned and urged his followers to also send a letter to Facebook's managers urging the company to address its moderators alleged pro Kremlin bias ends quote. Clearly,
David Dubo was more than just a Facebook profile. Rappaport was in a sense infiltrating his own community US based Russian anti Putin dissidents. But why well, My guess is people are less likely to listen to a former gas sales middleman turned nightclub owner who made millions under Putin's rule. Du Burg was nothing like that. He was an urra us soldier with Russian heritage and the feeling that America
is always in the right. It's a much easier sell that said, I don't think what dubog said was radically different from what Rappaport himself actually thought. It was just dressed up in a lot of nonsense. Said nonsense worked though.
Duberg was promoted by influential people in the scene. Slava Rabenovitch, a Russian American financer and blogger with nearly twenty five thousand fi Facebook followers, called Duberg his friend, and Alexander Suttnik, an opposition journalist and activist with over one hundred thousand followers,
promoted Duberg's writing. Duberg's influence grew when he was invited onto a conference call with Facebook managers and Facebook Global Head of Content Policy to speak about Krimlin propaganda operations on the site, something that actually has real world significance. Due to many people's inclination not to question what they read on the Internet if it comes from an alternative perspective, many people literally believe my side good, other side bad,
everything against my side propaganda. This is a bipartisan issue, trust me. So Duwberg was making waves in twenty fifteen, he was noted in Ukrainian media when an article was written about one of his many Facebook screens. The article was titled ten days will Suffice a Pentagon official gives a detailed description of how Russia will lose a war with NATO. Many reporters and propagandists shared Uberg's work and critically even interviewing him via email without double checking any
of his credentials. Sadly, especially in conflict reporting, journalism sometimes takes a back seat in favor of pr if it concerns the perceived good guys. It's wrong, but that's how it is, especially when social media fame is in the equation. So anyway, David Duberg was ostensibly speaking on behalf of the Pentagon, or at least he was projected that way. He was making wild statements about war that would give Ukrainians and anti Putin Russians a false sense of secure.
What Rappaport was doing here was pretty terrible, to be honest with you. By twenty sixteen, David Duberg was hot property. Union, a major Ukrainian information agency, ran two pieces on Duberg.
A Russian ATO war Pentagon analyst predicts how it could look and how it will end, and Pentagon weighs in on the possible scenario of events in Dombas Putin's perspectives Focus dot Yue published Pentagon gave its prediction of the future of Dombas the hugely popular Sogodya dot Yue published Pentagon gives valuable advice to Ukraine's armed forces and Pentagon
explains Russia's aggressive international posturing. On the same day, Ukraine's highly popular television channel ICTV also quoted Duburg in news items on its website, including Russia's defeat in the Dombas. The Pentagon gave details and the U speaks on Kremlin's expectations. As you can see, he's creating a false sense of security for Ukrainians. Around this time, the Kremlin took notice of David Duberg too. Remember he is Rappaport. Rappaport is heat,
so the Kremlin also took notice of Dan Rappaport. As Jewsamenko writes, quote Dubog was brashed to the point of being offensive and equal part anti Putin and patriotic to America. David Dubog was just the kind of an American many in the Russian opposition craved. His statements also pleased Ukrainian online crowds, eager for an insider perspective affirming the belief that America and its military minds were firmly on its
side in its ongoing war with Russia and its proxies. However, these same traits that endeared Duberg to Putin's foes in the fall of twenty sixteen turned out to be in high demand for Russian media looking for confirmations to the image of the warmongering, russiaphobic Pentagon long promulgated by the Kremlin anti American propaganda ends quote and so Duwberg's comments began to pop up in Russia's Kremlin run media organizations. Regnum dot Iu posted an article titled Pentagon speaks up
on NATO's war against Russia. It will be a war of rifle against the laser gun. Du Berg is cited as a US Department of Defense analyst. As you can see, rapperports bullshit began to catch up with him. Now, believe it or not, there's still so much more to this story. Sergeimy had been going over it, and this one really deserves a little more time. To boil it all down. There's a lot of information in this case that we just can't glide over. The end will be spectacular lo
something like that. In the next episode, the final part of what's first becoming a Dan Rappaport subplot, we'll discover who first blew the whistle on his death and how the David Duberg fraud was exposed. 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 Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork by
Adam mcdoyle, soundmix by Splicing Block. Go to Jakeanrahan dot com for more information.