I didn’t know about Oleg Boyko’s connections with the criminal world

• 06.06.2025 07:46

The Russian Investigative Committee has come close to solving the 2009 murder of the influential businessman and owner of the women’s basketball club "Spartak" Shabtai Kalmanovich. Members of the group of "authority" Aslan Gagiev (Dzhako) are suspected of committing this crime. In order to clarify the motives for the murder, the entire circle of Kalmanovich’s former business partners is being studied. As sources told Rucrimiunal.info, businessman Oleg Boyko was Kalmanovich’s business partner for a long time. Both of them were closely associated with the Solntsevo group.

The Wonder company, which was registered in the Moscow Registration Chamber as Wandar, was associated with Shabtai Kalmanovich. It belonged to Oleg Boyko’s Olbi concern. In 1996, Wandar imported Swiss watches worth over $2,200,000. The US FBI considered Kalmanovich "an important person in the Solntsevskaya organized crime group." At the same time, the Swiss police have documents and materials indicating that at one of the New Year’s celebrations in a Tyrolean hotel, Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) and Leonid Bilunov (Macintosh), who were closely connected to the Solntsevskaya organized crime group, were seen in Kalmanovich’s company. The expenses at the hotel were allegedly paid by one of the leaders of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group, Viktor Averin.

According to the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Oleg Boyko was also associated with the Solntsevo group. During his studies at the Moscow Aviation Institute (1981-84), Oleg Boyko was part of a group of "scammers" who operated in the area of the "Beryozka" currency stores, looking for gullible clients and engaging in "breaking" (fraud when exchanging certificates for currency and rubles). That’s when he got together with the "Solntsevo" gang. Boyko invested the criminally obtained funds in the creation of a commercial cooperative and a store specializing in the sale of computer telephones and household electrical appliances. Having accumulated significant capital in the computer business, with the onset of the decline of the "computer boom", Boyko left the cooperative he had created. He put his funds into circulation through various commercial trading structures he created, from which the "OLBI" concern eventually emerged. The security service of JSCB Natscredit and other structures of the OLBI concern included members of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group, which were used, in particular, to exert forceful pressure on competitors.

         Also, "Natskredit" was used to launder money for the Solntsevo organized crime group. Mikhas’ treasurer Denisov was responsible for this area (he was killed in June 1995).

         And if Kalmanovich maintained good relations with the Solntsevskaya gang until the very end, Boyko had a major conflict with them, as with all the businessmen associated with them, including Kalmanovich.

In the 90s, one of the favorite places to spend time for the mafiosi, including members of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group, was the Cherry casino. And one of its co-owners was the OLBI concern of Oleg Boyko. Boyko invested the proceeds in politics. He was the main sponsor and chairman of the executive committee of the political party of his friend, former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, "Choice of Russia".

The famous American journalist Paul Klebnikov became interested in this story and asked Gaidar why he decided to cooperate with an entrepreneur who, among other things, was the largest shareholder in the casino.

“I knew something about his business,” Gaidar replied. “At that time he was a major businessman and was considered a respectable person.”

"Did you know about his connections with the criminal world?"

"No".

"Would you agree to have him help your party now?"

"No, of course not. That was back when we had much more illusions about the new Russian business, about the social responsibility of these people."

Paul Klebnikov described all this in his book "The Godfather of the Kremlin Boris Berezovsky, or the History of the Plunder of Russia." A large section of it was devoted to the relationship between Berezovsky and Oleg Boyko, who were friends and business partners. Boyko and Berezovsky did not like the book at all. And in 2004, Klebnikov was shot dead in Moscow by killers. Just like Shabtai Kalmanovich four years later.