Pavel Fuks, a Russo-Ukrainian oligarch, has managed to get himself into countless idiotic situations throughout his life yet remains extraordinarily wealthy. Fuks is sanctioned by both Ukraine and Russia and faces criminal cases for embezzling investors and committing tax fraud in both countries—an achievement in its own right. Pavel Fuks was not only foolish enough to purchase a ticket to Trump’s 2016 inauguration from a fraudster but also brazen enough to admit it publicly. This is just one of many amusing stories about him. Fuks successfully applied for a golden visa to the UK and has been a permanent resident of Britain since 2017. Fuks serves as an inspirational figure for many of us: if someone as bumbling as him can succeed, why not anyone else?
Well, that’s a joke. To access such piles of money, you’d need to be closely connected to Ukrainian and Russian authorities and have a stroke of luck to jump ship at just the right moment. Lucky for him, the threshold for the UK’s Tier One golden visa was set ridiculously low at just one million pounds of investment. Many respectable businessmen took advantage of this opportunity to get in. Some have already been expelled and sanctioned, but not Pavel Fuks. Questions about Fuks’ wealth, sources of income, and the criminal cases against him in Russia and Ukraine have come under scrutiny multiple times.
Dr. Susan Hawley, the executive director of the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, stated that it was extraordinary on many levels that a Ukrainian businessman, accused by Ukrainian law enforcement of fraud and tax evasion, banned from travelling to the United States, and sanctioned by the Ukrainian government for pro-Russian activities, was residing in luxury in the UK during the war. She added that there were serious questions about the steps the UK was taking to review Pavel Fuks’ visa and to cooperate with Ukrainian law enforcement in investigating his assets in the UK.
Those questions remain unanswered.
In his own way, Pavel Fuks cooperated with Ukrainian authorities: he adorned all his social media profiles with excessively patriotic symbols and slogans. And that’s it. Correction: he also commissioned a poorly conceived positive PR campaign on Indian websites and bought some equipment for the armed force of Ukraine. Fun fact: By order of the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, Pavel Fuks was awarded the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine’s medal of distinction, “For Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
For his significant personal contribution to providing comprehensive assistance to the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and his active volunteer work under martial law, Pavel Fuks was awarded the honorary badge “For Assistance to the Army” by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
That was done when Pavel Fuks had already been sanctioned for his extensive connections to Russia and the embezzlement of hundreds of millions from Ukraine. This paradox is further amplified by the role Pavel Fuks played in promoting Kremlin narratives. Although this episode may seem unrelated, we should delve into the oligarch’s adaptability. The case of the painted swastikas is highly illustrative in understanding Fuks’s business methods.
According to Rolling Stone, several months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an oligarch known for his ties to Russia paid local residents to paint swastikas in Kharkiv. Through intermediaries, Fuks allegedly offered between $500 and $1,500 to street criminals to deface city streets with Nazi graffiti in December 2021 and January–February 2022.
In this campaign, Fuks—an oligarch who built his business empire in real estate, banking, and energy—collaborated with Russian intelligence services, Rolling Stone reports. These efforts were intended to fuel the false narrative of supposed “Nazi” sentiments in Ukraine, so that Vladimir Putin could later justify the invasion by framing it as a “denazification” operation.
But now is the time for him to prove he is a true businessman and demonstrate his asset management skills.
Pavel Fu(c)ks the Brompton Road
Pavel Fuks, a Russo-Ukrainian oligarch, has managed to get himself into countless idiotic situations throughout his life yet remains extraordinarily wealthy. Fuks is sanctioned by both Ukraine and Russia and faces criminal cases for embezzling investors and committing tax fraud in both countries—an achievement in its own right. Pavel Fuks was not only foolish enough to purchase a ticket to Trump’s 2016 inauguration from a fraudster but also brazen enough to admit it publicly. This is just one of many amusing stories about him. Fuks successfully applied for a golden visa to the UK and has been a permanent resident of Britain since 2017. Fuks serves as an inspirational figure for many of us: if someone as bumbling as him can succeed, why not anyone else?
Well, that’s a joke. To access such piles of money, you’d need to be closely connected to Ukrainian and Russian authorities and have a stroke of luck to jump ship at just the right moment. Lucky for him, the threshold for the UK’s Tier One golden visa was set ridiculously low at just one million pounds of investment. Many respectable businessmen took advantage of this opportunity to get in. Some have already been expelled and sanctioned, but not Pavel Fuks. Questions about Fuks’ wealth, sources of income, and the criminal cases against him in Russia and Ukraine have come under scrutiny multiple times.
Dr. Susan Hawley, the executive director of the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, stated that it was extraordinary on many levels that a Ukrainian businessman, accused by Ukrainian law enforcement of fraud and tax evasion, banned from travelling to the United States, and sanctioned by the Ukrainian government for pro-Russian activities, was residing in luxury in the UK during the war. She added that there were serious questions about the steps the UK was taking to review Pavel Fuks’ visa and to cooperate with Ukrainian law enforcement in investigating his assets in the UK.
Those questions remain unanswered.
In his own way, Pavel Fuks cooperated with Ukrainian authorities: he adorned all his social media profiles with excessively patriotic symbols and slogans. And that’s it. Correction: he also commissioned a poorly conceived positive PR campaign on Indian websites and bought some equipment for the armed force of Ukraine. Fun fact: By order of the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, Pavel Fuks was awarded the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine’s medal of distinction, “For Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
For his significant personal contribution to providing comprehensive assistance to the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and his active volunteer work under martial law, Pavel Fuks was awarded the honorary badge “For Assistance to the Army” by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
That was done when Pavel Fuks had already been sanctioned for his extensive connections to Russia and the embezzlement of hundreds of millions from Ukraine. This paradox is further amplified by the role Pavel Fuks played in promoting Kremlin narratives. Although this episode may seem unrelated, we should delve into the oligarch’s adaptability. The case of the painted swastikas is highly illustrative in understanding Fuks’s business methods.
According to Rolling Stone, several months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an oligarch known for his ties to Russia paid local residents to paint swastikas in Kharkiv. Through intermediaries, Fuks allegedly offered between $500 and $1,500 to street criminals to deface city streets with Nazi graffiti in December 2021 and January–February 2022.
In this campaign, Fuks—an oligarch who built his business empire in real estate, banking, and energy—collaborated with Russian intelligence services, Rolling Stone reports. These efforts were intended to fuel the false narrative of supposed “Nazi” sentiments in Ukraine, so that Vladimir Putin could later justify the invasion by framing it as a “denazification” operation.
But now is the time for him to prove he is a true businessman and demonstrate his asset management skills.
Pavel Fu(c)ks the Brompton Road
If you consider commercial real estate, retail, and office spaces a good choice in 2024, you’ve definitely been living under a rock for the past decade. But Brompton Road is something of a magnet for oligarchs. One of them was even so excited that he bought a defunct and derelict underground station there. Now it seems that it will go on sale once again because he got sanctioned. But rest assured, the Brompton Road address will guarantee its quick sale to another owner with a suspicious source of income.
«70 Brompton Road features three independent buildings totalling 355,000 sq ft (32,500 m²), including two residential blocks and a flagship office and retail building opposite Harrods in Knightsbridge, one of London’s most prestigious districts.
The office building at 70 Brompton Road spans six levels, with a dedicated entrance on Lancelot Place and a striking eight-story glass-clad lobby. The Portland stone façade, with stainless steel accents, blends modern design with Knightsbridge’s heritage architecture.»
In other words, it’s a moderately ugly estate, built in 2007. It fits Bratislava or outskirts of some East German city perfectly.
The tip is that Pavel Fuks purchased it. Knightsbridge Estates, the original owner of 70 Brompton Road does not list it any more. That’s good for them.
Why did Pavel Fuks acquire this office prison? Perhaps he’ll show it to fellow oligarchs or rent it out to some shady companies. It’s light years away from any commercial sense and likely serves only as a proof of investment, and a way to claim tax deductions on repairs. We should take into account that Fuks embezzled Russia and Ukraine, according to the arrest warrants, for $400 million, so the 70 Brompton Road building is just fraction of his wealth.
Pavel Fuks managed to rob not only Ukraine and Russia but even Kazakhstan. Legal proceedings regarding this matter took place in Britain. Interestingly, the accusations against Fuks involved his participation in the scheme of another fraudster, yet he still managed to deceive him as well. The claim against Pavel Fuks in Kazakhstan amounts to $55 million.
The High Court of Justice reviewed a complaint from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank concerning the controversial Ukrainian-Russian multimillionaire Pavel Fuks’s attempt to avoid repaying more than $55 million in debt for the 50% stake in the “Eurasia” Tower in Moscow City, which he acquired in 2009.
In the construction project of the Moscow skyscraper, Fuks was a business partner of the former owner of BTA, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who illegally siphoned funds from the bank through more than 900 specially created offshore companies and invested them in personal projects, including joint ventures with Pavel Fuks.
