Russian Oligarch In Exile Dies Suddenly
03/23/2013
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
From the BBC:
Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has been found dead at his home outside London. 

A police investigation has been launched into the death of the 67-year-old - a wanted man in Russia, and an opponent of President Vladimir Putin. 

A former Kremlin power-broker whose fortunes declined under Mr Putin, Mr Berezovsky emigrated to the UK in 2000. 

Thames Valley Police said the death, at a property in Ascot, Berkshire, was being treated as unexplained. 

... Last year, Mr Berezovsky lost a £3bn ($4.7bn) damages claim against Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

Mr Berezovsky claimed he had been intimidated by Mr Abramovich into selling shares in Russian oil giant Sibneft for a "fraction of their true worth". 

The allegations were completely rejected by the London Commercial Court judge, who called Mr Berezovsky an "inherently unreliable" witness.

Suicide? Murder? Am I being a Conspiracy Theorist by thinking Mr. Berezovsky probably didn't just keel over from a heart attack?

Back in 1989, I spent about six hours on a trans-Atlantic call negotiating a business deal with a minion of Robert Maxwell (the press baron initialed R.M. who wasn't Rupert Murdoch). At the last moment, Maxwell intervened to try to cheat on a point already agreed upon, so my boss and I immediately broke off negotiations. Two years later, when I heard that Maxwell had fallen off his yacht, being an inveterate conspiracy theorist I assumed there was more to the story than just the slip in the dark that the Responsible Authorities agreed upon before Maxwell's vast embezzlement of his workers' pensions was discovered.

Print Friendly and PDF