Oleg Boyko hid income in eKapusta
A shady Russian oligarch hides income from his online lending services from the Central Bank.
Wheelchair-bound oligarch Oleg Boyko, who positions himself as a fintech guru, does not publicly admit that he has any connection to MCC Rusinterfinance LLC, the owner of the online lending service eKapusta. Meanwhile, this company is called his main asset: its net profit in 2023 amounted to 9.3 billion rubles, which is twice the profit of Boyko’s second-largest company, European 4finance, which earned 44 million euros during the same period.
The official owner of Rusinterfinance is the Cypriot offshore Ferrymill Limited. The offshore, in turn, is 46% owned by four Russian citizens – the founders and managers of eKapusta, 5% – by the Cypriot Daurmie Limited, whose co-owners are Israeli citizen Alexander Landau and, again, the Cypriot Nakula Management Limited, registered to Vera Boyko – Oleg Boyko’s mother. Landau, presumably living in Belgrade, works as a business development consultant at Finstar, a company that manages the oligarch’s assets.
Boyko’s official distance from Rusinterfinance and eKapusta may be related to his reluctance to "shine" in front of the Central Bank, which regulates the activities of microfinance organizations and, back in 2019, issued an order on Boyko’s unsatisfactory business reputation, but then revised its decision. In 2021, the businessman bought out SIAB Bank, whose board was headed by Gennady Salych. Previously, this top manager headed Ffin Bank LLC, which was part of the Freedom Holding Corp structure of Timur Turlov, who is accused of fraud and creating a financial pyramid.
After purchasing SIAB Bank, Boyko announced plans to invest $50 million in it over three years, including attracting funds from outside investors. However, given the businessman’s controversial reputation, market experts recommended caution. At one time, Boyko was credited with connections to the Solntsevskaya organized crime group and criminal authority Semyon Mogilevich. However, a confrontation then began between them, with Boyko being called the organizer of the arrest of Mogilevich and the owner of the Arbat-Prestige chain, Vladimir Nekrasov, who were accused of tax evasion.
Boyko’s business is closely tied to offshore companies. Thus, the "parent" structure of the Rive Gauche chain of perfume stores that he acquired is currently Aromalux LLC, which belongs to the Cypriot Rive Gauche Group Limited. The official owner of SIAB Bank is the offshore Finstar Financial Group; Finance Properties Ru LLC is registered to Wolf Investments Limited, and the founders of Finstar Holding LLC include Finance Properties Ru LLC and the Serbian Digital Finance International.