Oleg Tinkov, who owned the Saxo-Tinkoff World Tour cycling team and was even a registered pro rider at one stage, has suffered a spectacular crash in his net worth since Russia invaded Ukraine and the world began imposing sanctions on Russia across all sectors.
While the value of his bank has crashed from $23 billion to less than $1 billion, Tinkov has been one of a number of Russian Oligarchs to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine.
“In Ukraine, innocent people are dying every day,” Tinkov wrote on Instagram this week. “This is unthinkable and unacceptable. Governments should spend money on treating people, on research to defeat cancer, and not on war. We are against this war!”
The 54-year-old has been fighting acute leukemia since 2019 and said this week he had come close to death twice during the period. He added that experience had made him realise how fragile life was.
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Tinkov built a vast fortune through his Tinkoff Bank, which he started small by taking loan applications through the postal system. He grew it into a giant in his native Russia, and then floated the bank on the London Stock Exchange in October, 2013.
Last November that bank was worth at least $23 billion, up from $1.1 billion when it floated. While the Moscow stock exchange has been closed in recent days to prevent a massive sell-off in shares, Tinkov's bank has continued to trade on the London exchange, where they have crashed by more than 95 per cent.
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The share price was £116.70 last November and began spiraling downwards as Russia's posturing against Ukraine began to increase, before nosediving in the last week since the invasion began, and sanctions commenced. The drop in the company's share value since this year began has been 96 per cent.
The financial media estimated Tinkov's personal wealth at around $6 billion when the bank was riding high last November, much of that based on the stake of the company he personally holds. However, that personal net worth has dropped by more than $5 billion. Tinkov, who was one of the richest men in Russia, was worth $800 million on Tuesday with further - though not yet determined - falls since then.
It is still a huge amount of money, of course, but Tinkov said himself months ago the company would soon be worth $30 billion and, he hoped, would increase to $100 billion in time.
Aside from the bank shares, Tinkov has a chain of luxury villas in California and ski chalets in the French Alps. He also owns a Dassault Falcon 7X, though Russian aircraft are now banned from European and British airspace.
Late October the Department of Justice in the US said a felony conviction had been secured against Tinkov “for filing a false tax return” and as part of finalising that case he paid $508,936,184. That related to tax avoidance he had engaged in, but was caught for, back in 2013.
Tinkov owned the Saxo Tinkoff cycling team between 2013 and 2016, when he left cycling. His company has since taken on sponsoring the main soccer league in Russia while Tinkov also sponsors Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev.
