At Least Ten Russian Billionaires Are Now Millionaires Due To Russia Stocks Tanking

And that is just the stock market, which does not necessarily factor in the collapse of the ruble as well as the US Justice and Treasury Departments and the EU setting up a special task force to seize Russian-owned assets.

No wonder there are reports that most Russian billionaires' yachts are heading to the Maldives Islands where they are reputed to be safe from forfeiture (if somewhat inconveniently located). JL 

Iain Martin reports in Forbes, image by Forbes:

At least 10 former Russian billionaires to have dropped out of the three comma club as a result of Russian stocks tanking, and the ruble hitting record lows against the dollar, amid sanctions and increasing isolation of Russia by the West. Notable drop-offs include Arkady Volozh, CEO and founder of Russian search engine Yandex. Digital bank Tinkoff, on the London Stock Exchange, saw shares slump 90%. Shares of Lukoil, Russia’s largest independent oil producer which was founded by billionaire Vagit Alekperov, have also plunged almost 93%.  

Oleg Tinkov became one of the richest men in Russia after hopping from selling beer and dumplings to floating his digital bank Tinkoff on the London Stock Exchange. Tinkoff shares slumped more than 90% since the start of Russia’s assault on Ukraine. His fortune has fallen more than $5 billion in less than a month, and on Tuesday he lost his billionaire status. 

Tinkov is one of at least 10 former Russian billionaires to have dropped out of the three comma club as a result of Russian stocks tanking, and the ruble hitting record lows against the dollar, amid sanctions and increasing isolation of Russia by the West. Other notable drop-offs include Arkady Volozh, CEO and founder of Russian search engine Yandex.

Forbes estimates that Tinkov’s net worth has now shrunk to around $800 million. That’s because a significant portion of his wealth is tied up in Russia’s take on Capital One, Tinkoff Bank, whose market cap fell from a high of $23 billion in November to just over $1 billion on Tuesday. 

While the Moscow Stock Exchange has been closed, Tinkoff Bank, and other Russian businesses with dual listings in London have seen their share prices collapse precipitously. Shares of Lukoil, Russia’s largest independent oil producer which was founded by billionaire Vagit Alekperov, have also plunged almost 93%.   

Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and sanctions against Russian banks, Tinkov faced plenty of problems. The son of a Siberian coal miner, who launched Tinkoff bank in 2006, was arrested in London in March 2020 on a U.S. federal tax evasion charge. Tinkov paid $509 million to settle the case with the U.S. Justice Department in October 2021.  A month after his arrest, the Russian businessman announced he would step down as chairman of Tinkoff Bank in April 2020 after revealing he had been diagnosed with acute leukemia. 

While his fortune has shrunk, the former billionaire still owns the La Dacha collection, luxury villas in Baja California and ski chalets in the French Alps, and a Dassault Falcon 7X, though all Russian aircraft are now banned from British and European airspace.

Tinkov, who once boasted to the Financial Times of his connections to Putin, is one of a handful of Russia’s super-rich to speak out about the war. He said that during his illness he had the opportunity to see how fragile human life is and called for the end of the “special operation” in Ukraine. “Innocent people are dying in Ukraine now, every day, this is unthinkable and unacceptable! States should spend money on treating people, on research to defeat cancer, and not on war,” he wrote.