Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov given bail at £20M
Oleg Tinkov, 52, was brought before Westminster magistrates
on Thursday after American prosecutors issued a provisional warrant for his
arrest.
The US has accused the ex-Tinkoff Saxo Team cycling team
backer of making a false tax return and under-reporting his 2013 income. Tinkov
launched his online Tinkoff Bank in 2006 and it is now a major internet bank,
with around eight million customers in Russia.
He has also launched a luxury hotel chain in France, Italy
and Russia under the La Datcha banner.
Last June, he bought his latest 246ft super yacht, a
SeaXplorer 75 named after his hotel chain that, has two helicopters. It can
handle Polar ice.
Tinkov is under strict curfew ahead of his next court
hearing having paid one of the biggest securities to get bail.
He will be electronically monitored and have to stay from
7pm to 7am at a flat near Holland Park in Kensington.
His Estonian wife Rina, 49, paid around £6.9million cash for
it last June.
They also have an alternative address in the Swiss ski
resort of Verbier.
The billionaire faces an airport ban and must stay within
the M25. He has had to surrender his passports and has to report to police
three times a week.
Tinkov, said to be worth $2.5billion (£1.9billion), praised
Vladimir Putin in 2015 but said the 2018 US sanctions against those close to
the Russian president cost him “$250million a day”.
He then denied being an oligarch, saying he was self-made
with no ties to the Russian government and had only met Mr Putin once in 2000.
His daughter Darya and sons Roman and Pasha were educated in
England.
Tinkov’s umbrella company, TCS Group Holding Plc, which is
listed on the London Stock Exchange, said he “is confident that it will be
resolved as swiftly as possible” and that it was a private matter that “does
not affect any of the operating companies in Tinkoff Group”.
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