How did Ilya Medkov become a millionaire? Why was he killed? We will answer these and other questions in the article. Ilya Alekseevich Medkov was a Russian entrepreneur, manager. He was the head of Pragma Bank, the owner of the DIAM oil company. This man is one of the first multimillionaires in Russia.
Biography
Ilya Medkov was born in the family of a doctor in Moscow in 1967, February 27. In the Chemical-Technological Institute. Mendeleev (Moscow) he entered in 1983. For the first three years, the new student was engaged in samizdat affairs, and in 1984 he transferred to the journalism department of Moscow State University, from where he was expelled in 1988. In the same year, he began working as a freelancer at Kommersant Publishing House.
Further, Ilya Medkov becomes a partner of the Moscow banker Angelevich Arkady. Together with him, in 1990, in February, he co-founded the Pragma cooperative, which was engaged in the import of personal computers from the United States and Japan. In 1991, Ilya turned into one of the millionaires of the USSR and entered the club of the young rich of Russia.
After the August events of 1991, in October of that year, Ilya Medkov created Pragma Bank in order to legalize the intermediary functions of selling goods from state enterprises. At the time of the start of privatization, in 1992, Medkov’s structures audited about 9% of all supplies of the Russian raw materials industry (including its own factories in Kazakhstan and Lermontov in the Caucasus), outstanding trading houses, mass media institutions, and expensive brokerage platforms on American and Russian exchanges.
In January 1993, the general privatization of oil enterprises in the public sector began. It was on this wave that Ilya Alekseevich Medkov created the DIAM oil company. In the same year, he took up the financing of large news agencies in Russia, social movements and political parties.
He sponsored several galleries in Moscow, acted as the leading sponsor of the exhibition of Russian art in Frankfurt. In 1993, in the summer, Ilya Alekseevich Medkov became a partner of the French authorities, who organized an Interethnic art show in the Paris Museum. According to false information, the state of the young businessman was about 600 million US dollars.
Skirmish with the government
Ilya Medkov - a banker with a capital letter. In the summer of 1993, he was accused of money laundering. Shortly before that, in May 1993, Pragma Bank was embroiled in semi-legal operations with fake memorial warrants and Chechen memos. As a result, according to the decision of the head of the 2nd Directorate of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Matyukhin Alexei, 4 billion rubles were written off.
The board of directors called the write-off of money from the bank’s accounts illegal, Matyukhin did not recognize the decision and filed a lawsuit against the Central Bank of the RSFSR.
The court decided to satisfy the claim in the amount of 3.7 billion rubles. The first Soviet millionaire Artyom Tarasov said that Medkov created a dangerous precedent by a lawsuit against which he would be killed for sure. In addition, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation made an attempt to incriminate Ilya with some atrocities, which included the checks “Russia”, also implemented in 1991 through “Pragma Bank”.
Ilya Medkov (Russian billionaire) was supposed to be arrested in 1993, September 18. According to Nosik Anton, Medkov was warned about this. He booked a ticket to Paris at 7:00 p.m. on September 16, but for unknown reasons remained in the office until midnight.
Murder
So, you already know a little such a person as Ilya Medkov, a biography. His parents probably did not think that he would be a millionaire. In 1993, on September 17, at about 01:15, he left the building of the Medkov bank and headed for the car that was waiting for him. Suddenly, he stood still and turned to go back, but suddenly fell. People thought that he had a heart attack.
As soon as they approached their boss and saw a pool of blood spreading beneath him, the bank employees and security guards realized what had happened. They called an ambulance and police. Doctors, examining the victim, concluded that he had virtually no chance of survival: the bullet hit the financier in the stomach and perforated the liver.
Ilya Medkov (banker) died in the Botkin hospital in the intensive care unit. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
Curious facts
Russian multimillionaires earned their money at an enormous rate. Ilya Medkov was one of the wealthiest people in the Russian Federation. It may very well be that by 1994 he could become Russia's first billionaire.
Ilya was acquainted with Vladimir Yakovlev, Artyom Tarasov, Anton Nosik, German Sterligov and Boris Yeltsin. It is known that in 1989 he participated in the creation of the first Russian business newspaper Kommersant.
Artyom Tarasov wrote an autobiographical novel, The Millionaire, in which he described the moment when Ilya was one of the first Russian entrepreneurs to introduce control over the media. In 1992, Medkov began to pay salaries to prominent news agencies in Russia and the CIS (Interfax, RIA Novosti, ITAR-TASS and Post-factum).
The ITAR-TASS Agency in January 1993 launched a fictitious media report about the disaster at the Leningrad NPP. As a result, shares of well-known Scandinavian corporations fell in price. And while the media was preparing a rebuttal to false information, Medkov’s agents were buying up securities of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian enterprises.
It is known that Sterligov German and Ilya Medkov were one of the youngest dollar millionaires in the Russian Federation. At the time when they earned their millions, Sterligov was 24 years old, and Medkov - 23.
From 1991 to 1993, Medkov scrolled about 10 gigantic adventures (including “stuffing” the media with the information he needed and manipulating Chechnya's payment advice notes), but they were all legal in terms of law. At that time, the state did not have such confirmed precedents, as well as a solid criminal legal framework providing for liability for such scams.
Former members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union worked in the senior management of the industrial sector, which was controlled by Pragma Bank. Medkov took them to work immediately after the August coup. This extravagant move allowed him, with the help of his managers, to conclude deals with the "red chefs" in large enterprises, which quite recently were subject to these former members of the Central Committee.
Medkov believed that this psychological trick was useful for business, as fear arose, genetic memory was included , and any, even the most wayward official, was subordinate to his former leader.
Man of the future
According to Nosik Anton, Ilya Medkov was not a man of the 19th, but the 21st century. After all, he believed in the Internet when the whole society relied on soldering irons. Also, Tarasov recognized Medkov as “the man of the future” in his autobiography. He wrote the following: “It became immediately obvious that this young man was not in my range ... He absorbed information like sand, transformed them right away and produced such stunning projects that were already connected with Russian reality that it took my breath away fantasies! He earned money as the laws or their absence in Russia allowed him. Ilyusha reincarnated as one of the first inexperienced tycoons - he was a man of the newest warehouse, and a loud future awaited him. He truly created himself, unlike most modern oligarchs, whom he created by being close to a corrupt government ... ”
Many suggest that the contract killing of Ilya is associated with the shocking liquidation of Otari Kvantrishvili. Nevertheless, both the killings remained unrevealed.
It is said that the abbreviation of the DIAM oil company was supposedly decoded as “The Case of Ilya Alekseevich Medkov”.
Reflections
Probably, when all the statutes of limitations expire, the history of that time will be written by one of the survivors, but still remembering. Pragma, RCC, and DIAM, and unsuccessful negotiations in Yalta, and 13th Parkovaya, and the Central Bank computer, and a dealing center, and human genetic testing, and a double-repainted airliner, and the Butyrky steep route will be mentioned. - Warsaw - Pisgat - Zeev "...
Ilya Medkov did everything to be killed. He had a ticket for the airliner to Paris, flying from Sheremetyevo-2 at 19:00 on September 16, 1993. Ilya did not come to check-in. He remained in his office on September 17 until one in the morning. Then the financier appeared on the porch (corner of Kostikov and 1905 streets). The killer was hiding in the house opposite, who shot him from the carbine of Simonov.
Ilya knew for sure that if he did not leave, they would kill him. It was not by chance that a ticket was bought for a Paris flight. Ilya himself wanted to be killed. Many, if they were in his place, would also choose death.
Offenses
The routines that Ilya was going to blame after the arrest on September 18 (to avoid which they removed him on the 17th), mainly related to the area of white-collar offenses.
The managers of all the property of the late financier, as well as all his loans, including DIAM Bank, Ilya’s mother appointed people alien to their family: Arkady Angelevich and comrade Bureychenko. The cooperation and friendship of these "three comrades-in-arms" began at the origins of cooperation, when the young men created the company "Pragma" on New Arbat.
They have accumulated primary capital in the computer trade. In addition, Medkov, having been prudent, worked for six months with Artyom Tarasov in the well-known Istok company. The first Soviet official millionaire, it seems, wanted to put his fellow citizens on Rossiya checks. In reality, he "shod them."
The company, led by Medkov, was also implicated in the theft of public funds with the help of fake Russia checks. The arrest of Ilya was prevented by death. It turned out that shortly before his death, he quarreled with Angelevich and even decided to report him to the police. The conflict occurred due to an impressive amount of money stolen from fake papers.
And although Medkov remembered how such quarrels ended (he knew about the shooting of four people in the Istok’s office on Krasnaya Presnya), he obviously did not expect such a denouement for himself.
Versions
What are the versions of the murder of Ilya Medkov? Initially, it was believed that his death was associated with an incident in the office of the Istok association in early 1993. It was then that unknown persons shot colleagues PM Goncharov, Smirnov, Khashagulgov and Kutyunov from PM and AKS-74. Medkov raised the oil business, was engaged in charity work (sponsored several exhibitions and three Moscow galleries) and banking.
It was the last factor that led to the death of the businessman. The investigation found that Medkov was involved in large-scale adventures with fictitious firms and fake memos. He created about 70 various imaginary institutions, into the accounts of which a clever banker transferred huge amounts of money. The numbers are called different, although the investigation speaks of nine billion rubles.
If we take into account that most of the money their people in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation converted and transferred abroad, then the amount of thefts should be about $ 100 million. The accomplices of the deceased banker are likely to feel great, having solid villas and solid accounts in Europe.
By the way, the customer, interested in the death of Ilya, almost miscalculated. Killer turned out to be a very bad shooter. He got into the object only on the third attempt from a distance of 47 meters from the SKS carbine (the killer was hiding in the attic of a neighboring house). The first two bullets on the pavement left marks.
According to Yuri Shchekochikhin (an organized crime specialist, a correspondent for Literary Newspaper), this murder is like two drops of water similar to the murder of Kvantrishvili.
High-profile killings
The contract killing of Medkov is still a mystery. His name, as well as the name of his colleague Rovno (head of the Pragma association) flaunted in several criminal cases of impressive thefts. In December 1992, 10 billion rubles in fake memorial warrants through the Medkov Bank was stolen from the Central Bank of Russia by a certain Melissa enterprise.
Specialists of the investigative department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate do not have evidence of Medkov’s involvement in this crime. But in the case of the theft of state funds with the help of fake "Russia" checks, investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs planned to arrest him in September 1993.
The investigation suggested from the very beginning that the death of Ilya, as, however, of Rivne, and other financiers, was connected with illegal banking operations. But this evidence has not yet been found. But it turned out that Medkov began his career by working as a driver in the foreign economic association Istok, which was headed by Artyom Tarasov.
A criminal case is still being investigated on the fact of theft of state funds in the process of the “Source” execution of the Urozhay-90 government program. Ilya created the association "Pragma" after working in the "Source". After that, he began to lead the DIAM concern. Most of Medkov’s acquaintances dismantled this abbreviation as “Dear Ilya Alekseevich Medkov.”
Like Istok, the concern was engaged in the oil business. It is worth remembering that in the premises of the "Source" six months before the death of Medkov, unknown Chechens killed four people. Including Khashegulgov, who was a former investigator of the prosecutor's office of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. Investigators could not find the initiators of this crime, nor the executioner Medkov.
Details
How was Ilya Medkov killed? “Diam-Bank” was a friendly enterprise for Ilya, and it was in his office that the 26-year-old banker drank in the company of his acquaintances until one in the morning. Medkov said goodbye to his friends at 1:15 and went outside with a bodyguard. The second guard did not appear at work that day, as his father died. Nevertheless, even if ten bodyguards were near Medkov, they would hardly have saved their ward's killer from a bullet. Another thing is body armor. But at that moment he was not on Ilya either. Although he hadn’t taken it off himself the whole week before.
We have already said that Medkov’s condition was colossal. He could afford to have a decent guard. When Medkov approached his car, the killer fired his first shot from the attic of the house.
Law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene of the incident inspected the attic of the neighboring building and found there a pistol and rifle with an SCS optical sight, carefully wiped with a scarf.
Today, no one hopes that the murder of the millionaire Medkov will be solved. Just as, for example, the death of the then commerce star Otari Kvantrishvili. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to remember after almost a quarter of a century the name of a child prodigy from a business.
We already reported where Ilya Medkov is buried. His grave is located at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. On it stands a monument to a man who created himself on his own, with an engraving "Ilya Alekseevich Medkov, 1967-1993."
Facts from life
We can say that the nationality of Ilya Medkov is a millionaire. But seriously, there are no specific data on his nationality. Medkov burst into the list of Russia's richest entrepreneurs back in Soviet times at 23 years old. Ilya managed to overtake his peer Sterligov both in the starting speed of his own success and in the amount of assets earned.
Business biographies of millionaires of that time had a lot in common. Sterligov (an undergraduate student) made his profit from the Alice exchange he created, and Medkov quickly filled his hand in intermediary services. Ilya was engaged in the sale of goods of extremely slow-moving enterprises, which then made up the lion's share of the country's industrial potential. It is interesting that both rich men did not receive diplomas of higher education.
Medkov was an anecdotal character, only real. He flew on a private plane to Paris, and after him followed a caravan of so-called fashion models. They were delivered to France by entire agencies.
Many say that Ilya spent every night with girls, and each time with different girls. Despite the fact that the financier weighed no more than 50 kilograms, was tiny and had one kidney, the guy was distinguished by his breadth of soul and colossal masculine strength. He bought diamonds for his long-legged beauties, soaked them in bathtubs with champagne, ran around on race cars on freeways and often got into accidents.
In fact, Medkov lived to the fullest. Meanwhile, his partner Angelevich, who was pretty fed up with all these games, worked in Moscow. Ultimately, Arkady proposed Ilya to divide the business.
The case of the murder of Medkov today is in the category of the so-called capercaillie. It is quietly covered with dust in the archival basement of some metropolitan prosecutor's office. He was never disclosed. But the fact remains. In general, the 90s became famous as a period of loud killings of prominent figures in politics and business.