• Founder and CEO, Unicoin.com
    Unicoin is the official cryptocurrency of Unicorn Hunters which Forbes called “The most iconic business series of recent times”.
  • CEO, TransparentBusiness
    TransparentBusiness SaaS platform was designated by Citigroup as the Top People Management Solution
  • International Entrepreneur
    Created the largest bank in Russia by age of 25 before defecting to the United States in 1992 and starting from scratch.

News

Spy Wars

The Guardian

December 10, 2006

By Scott Shane. Washington

I CALLED Alexander Litvinenko in London to ask him about poison and the K.G.B., and he was glad to oblige. Yes, he said in that interview two years ago, he believed that the Russian security agency was behind the dioxin poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, who was running for president of Ukraine.

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Poisoning Puts Business Whith Russia Under A Cloud

The Guardian

November 29, 2006

The poisoning in London of a former KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko, will damage investor confidence in Russia, the primary trade association representing those doing business between Britain and Russia warned yesterday.

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Welcome Home, Comrade

Washington Post

March 17, 2004

By Al Kamen

Meanwhile, the effort continues to outsource former Russian banker Alex Konanykhin to the welcoming arms of former KGB thug and landslide-reelection winner Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

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In The Loop

Washington Post

February 13, 2004

By Al Kamen

At the end of 2003, former Russian banker Alex Konanykhin was spending a little time in jail as a guest of Uncle Sam, having been nabbed by U.S. immigration officials as he tried to go from Buffalo to apply for political asylum in Canada. (That's right, going across the Peace Bridge in his BMW, leaving the country.

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The Konanykhine Case

The New American Magazine

February 1, 2004

By William Norman Grigg. Senior Editor for The New American magazine

Alexander Konanykhine is a wildly successful 37-year-old Russian expatriate entrepreneur. The U.S. government has accused him -- on the basis of supposed evidence provided by Russian investigators -- of being an embezzler, a bigamist, and a draft dodger. Konanykhine's background is somewhat murky, perhaps even troubling, but this much is certain: He is a man who blew the whistle on the KGB's continuing stranglehold on Russia, particularly its banking industry. For this, the government of KGB veteran Vladimir Putin wants Konanykhine dead - and our Department of Homeland Security has done its best to give Moscow a helping hand.

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U.s. Rethinks Konanykhin Case

The Moscow Times

January 29, 2004

By Catherine Belton. Staff Writer

The U.S. Justice Department late Tuesday reversed a decision to deport controversial former banker Alexander Konanykhin back to Russia and said it would reopen hearings into his political asylum case.

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More News...

Washington Post:
Konanykhin, one of the first Russian millionaires after the fall of the commies, left in 1992 and was granted asylum here in 1999. He's built a very successful Web advertising business in New York City. He had been chosen "New York Businessman of the Year." "As such, you will be honored and presented with your award," NRCC chairman Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) said, at a "special ceremony" April 1. " President Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are our special invited guests.
CNN:
Alex Konanykhin controlled Russia's largest commercial bank in the 1990s
Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Konanykhin was a whiz-kid physics student who became a pioneering Russian capitalist in early 1990s, building a banking and investment empire valued at an estimated $300 million all by his mid-20s. He was a member of President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle.
The Sun:
Alex Konanykhin fled Russia in 1992 and won asylum in the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The entrepreneur had set up 100 different companies in Russia and had an estimated net worth of $300million by the time he was 25. He is regarded as one of the first Russian millionaires after the fall of the Iron Curtain. One of the newly open country's leading lights, he even met with US President George HW Bush in 1991 on a joint visit with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. However, he was then kidnapped in 1992 while visiting Budapest and all of his business assets were seized in Russia. … Being hunted by the Russian state, Konanykhin won asylum in the US in 1997 and set up a new life - but the shadow of the Kremlin continued to loom over him.He went on to rebuild a business empire and set up multimillion dollar firms such as TransparentBusiness in the US.
The Baltimore Sun:
Business whiz kid.
WJLA TV / ABC:
Russian Bill Gates.
The Times:
By the time he was 25 he was one of the most important figures in post-Communist Russia. But in 1992, while on a business trip to Hungary, Alex Konanykhine was kidnapped.
The New York Times:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation notified Konanykhin that Russian organized crime figures had paid to have him killed.
Los Angeles Daily Journal:
Representing himself through much of the process, Konanykhin managed to convince an immigration judge of an alleged INS and KGB conspiracy and cover-up. Following the court's admonishment, the INS agreed to drop all charges and also pay $100,000..The judge also ordered an investigation of the Justice Department. In separate actions, Konanykhine subsequently won multimillion dollar libel judgments against two Russian newspapers. A $100 million lawsuit against the Justice Department is pending, alleging perjury, fraud, torture and witness tampering by U.S government officers on behalf of the Russian Mafia.
Profit Magazine:
Imagine you are a teenage physics genius who quickly amasses a $300 million empire of real estate and banking ventures, has dozens of cars, six hundred employees, several mansions and two hundred bodyguards—but you are nonetheless kidnapped by those you trusted, threatened with torture and death, and have your entire empire stolen from you one dark night in Budapest. You escape with your life by racing through Eastern-block countries and flying to New York on stashed-away passports—only to have the KGB and Russian Mafia hell-bent on your hide and the U.S. government jailing you and conspiring to serve you up into their clutches. All this before your 29th birthday. Sound like a Tom Clancy thriller? No. . . just a slice in the life of Alexander Konanykhine.