CALIFORNIA
Federal authorities on Friday said Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov is required to pay nearly $509 million to settle U.S. tax evasion charges.
The banking and investment tycoon plead guilty in earlier this month to felony charges of concealing more than $1 billion in assets to avoid paying taxes. Tinkov tried to avoid paying taxes by giving up his U.S. citizenship in 2013, according to officials.
In late 2005 or 2006, Tinkov founded Tinkoff Credit Services (TCS), a Russia-based branchless bank that provides its customers with online financial and banking services. Through a foreign entity, Tinkov indirectly held the majority of TCS shares, according to officials.
Tinkov, 53, became a US citizen in 1996.
He was indicted in September 2019 and arrested in London in February 2020. After his arrest, he fought extradition on medical grounds.
In public records, Tinkov has disclosed that he is undergoing a UK-based intensive treatment plan for acute myeloid leukemia and graft versus host disease, which has rendered him immunocompromised and unable to safely travel in the foreseeable future.
Tinkov concealed from the IRS large stock gains that he knew were reportable.
Tinklov must also pay $248.5 million in taxes, statutory interest on that tax, In addition, he will pay a nearly $100 million fraud penalty. Tinkov was additionally fined $250,000, which is the maximum allowed by statute and sentenced to time served and one year of supervised release.
The IRS-Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and law enforcement partners in the UK secured Tinkov’s arrest overseas.