August 9, 2023 • 28 mins
What does a Latvian-born nightclub owner have to do with you Russian oil and gas, Mitt Romney, and Donald Trump? More than you’d expect… Sadly we can’t ask him directly, as the man in question fell out the window of his luxury apartment in Washington, DC last year.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
A window, slashed his wrists, was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
the space of nine months. Many of the debts are
suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created
(00:32):
by me Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. Sad
Oligarch is a H eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio.
This case concerned someone a bit different. He died in Washington.
(00:53):
He was anti Poutine, he had connections to both US
political parties, and he's actually not e and Russian. He is, however,
dead and the circumstances around his death are really strange.
On August fourteenth, twenty twenty two, Latvian born Dan Rappaport,
(01:15):
fifty two, was in his luxury apartment in Washington, DC.
He lived in the city's West End, an upmarket area
with the finest restaurants hotels and condos.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Naturally, Rappaport was rich.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He made his money in a number of different ways,
including financial investments in which he oversaw large international projects
concerning US Russian oil cooperation. That evening, police in DC
got an alert on their patrol car radio.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
There's been a jumper in the West End.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
As they pulled up to the scene, a man was
found lying in a heap on the floor. He'd fallen
out of the window of his fancy apartment, plummeting nine
stories onto the pavement.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It was Dan Rappaport, of what was left.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Of him, He'd fallen around ninety feet to the concrete.
That's a serious fall. Around ninety nine percent of people
who fall that distance don't survive. Dan Rappaport was no exception.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital and
his pockets was two six hundred and ten dollars in cash,
(02:26):
a broken phone, and the lanyard with a key attached.
An autopsy report released in November twenty twenty two stated
that Rappaport died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries as
a result of the fall. However, his cause of death
was ruled as undetermined. His wife said he showed no
(02:47):
signs of depression and doesn't believe it was a suicide.
They'd made plans for the following day and Rappaport had
several business meetings scheduled. Police closed the case, but they
said they're open to further investigate if any tips come
in or further evidence appears. So, who was done, Rappaport
and why would you have any connection to the dead
(03:09):
Russians mentioned throughout this series. Let's start with the Soho
Rooms Rappaport nightclub. The Soho Rooms was a high end
nightclub in Moscow. It was opened by Rappaport in two
thousand and seven. Within a few years of its launch,
the club became somewhat of a mecca for Russia's rich,
(03:32):
cosmopolitan party scene. Situated in a trendy building that's a
mix of Art Deco and Soviet brutalism, the Soho Rooms
was the place to be if you wanted to flow
in your money and indulge in expensive taste. Reserving a
single table cost one hundred thousand rubles, which is over
one thousand US dollars. That's the average monthly wage for
(03:55):
your everyday Muscovite. International musicians performed regularly the Soho Rooms,
including Johnny Depp and his awful band Hollywood Vampires. It
became the go to club for it girls, politicians, and businessmen.
If you like fine dining, strong drugs, and expensive liquor,
the Soho Rooms was the place to be. It became
(04:18):
synonymous with Russia's party elite. It was very well known.
If you weren't there on Friday or Saturday night, he
didn't matter. Rappaport himself was by no means a silent
partner in all of this. He loved the nightlife, the
seeing the money. By all accounts, he basked in the
glory of running a club for the elite. According to
(04:39):
a Russian journalist familiar with the culture of the Soho Rooms,
Rappaport knew everyone that mattered, and everyone that mattered knew him.
It was a legend in Russia's party scene. The Soho
Rooms expanded with franchises across Russia and won in Dubai. Naturally,
the club turned over big profits. Rappaport lived a lavish
(05:01):
lifestyle and apparently he owned several million dollar apartments around Moscow.
Clearly life was good, or at least it was until
Rappaport had to flee Russia due to his anti pootin activity. However,
how serious him fleeing was at the time is up
for debate, as Rappaport allegedly returned to Russia several times
(05:25):
after being apparently forced to leave. He continued to build
what was considered a cult following amongst the party scene
until the Soho rooms was closed down in twenty eighteen.
At this time, the Russian ruble was at one of
its highest values. Rappaport was making a killing four years later,
though he'd wind up dead on a DC pavement. Nightclubs
(05:49):
is not how Dan Rappaport first got rich stock. He
got his start in economics, as Me and Surgery discussed.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
He grew up in the US and he got his
really from Houston, Texas. From there he went into an
investing firm, Fibro. They focused like raw materials, so any
kind of oil, just mining things like that. I think
he graduated somewhere in the early nineties and he started
working at Fibro and they were working on a project
(06:21):
in Russia, one of the first like oil extraction projects.
The company basically got three stakes in three different oil
fields and they were trying to develop those.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They were one of the.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
First companies to go in and they were one of
the first companies to actually set up shop like they
were I think by nineteen ninety one nineteen eighty two,
they were already pumping oil and selling it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And so a familiar pattern emerges. This is yet another
wealthy businessman with heavy ties to the Russian oil and
gas industry who's died in mysterious circumstances. This guy even
fell out of a window. When Rappaport first entered this
industry in the nineties, big money was made immediately, and
(07:03):
the Russian government quickly stepped in to increase their cut.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I think it was around twenty k years dr day.
It did slow down. That project kind of fizzled out.
It was kind of killed off by the Russian government
because they were they were really getting a hang out
of the whole capitalism thing, and they were putting a
bunch of taxes on from what it seems like everything
you know, on the transport of oil, on companies operating
(07:30):
in it, then forcing them to pay and extremely devalued ruble,
which kind of just I guess, kind of killed that obviously,
other companies to cover and you know, now oil is massive,
but at that time, like that project called White Knights
didn't exactly work out.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
The White Knights project was the first joint Russian American
operation designed to open up more oil fields across Siberia.
White Knights was actually conceived before the collapse of the
Soviet Union, when the UA SSR was opening up to
foreign investment in the late eighties. As Sergey said, White
Knights began turning over twenty thousand dollars a day within
(08:09):
just a few months of its launch. By nineteen ninety two,
though the project collapsed. Rappaports stayed in Russia after White
Knights ended. He had experience in both the USSR and
the US, having grown up in Soviet Latvia but also
getting educated in America, a very useful set of credentials
in the banditry period of post Soviet Russia.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
From then on he stayed in Russia.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And you know, being from a Russian family, they escaped
from Latvia like Ussar Latvia to the US.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
He's like a US citizen. He can be the middleman.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, he speaks Russian, of course, and he became
this middleman for investors and the New Russia. That's kind
of you know how they say selling out, They're kind
of everything that was once government owned is now going
to private owners. And he was this middleman looking for
American European investors, helping them make these deals of purchasing
(09:12):
these massive facilities, anything that can be sold, basically that
was being sold any industry that the USSR had. He
was kind of making those deals.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
After this, Rappaport went on to work at an investment
firm Center Invest, essentially doing the same things he'd been
doing before, working as a fixer or a middleman for
Western companies looking to capitalize on the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Bleed it dry, ignore the people profit. By
(09:52):
the two thousands, Rappaport was the manager at sent To Invest,
with offices in both Moscow and New York. Over the decade,
he went from wealthy to very wealthy. This is when
Rappaport made the bulk of his money, enabling him to
invest in more exciting ventures like the Soho rooms in Moscow.
Rappaport opened that in two thousand and seven, but then
(10:14):
the following year he hit a roadblock. The US government
puts sanctions on him.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
It seems like the charges were a securities fraud and
even though he you know, is sanctioned, he was kind of.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
In trouble with the US government.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Five years later, all the charges were dropped and he
returned to the US.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So Dan Rappaport was accused and charged with securities fraud.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
But what is that.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, basically, it's high tier white collar lying. It's also
referred to as stock fraud or investment fraud, and it's
a serious crime. Basically, it involves misrepresenting a deal by
either omitting certain details or just outright lying to urge
investors to make decisions. Stockbrokers, brokerage corporations, and investment banks
(11:05):
are often involved in securities fraud in some way, most
of them get away with it. That Rapperport's charges were
dropped after five years doesn't mean much in my opinion
either way. He made his money capitalizing on the downfall
of post Soviet Russia, skipping back and forth between New
York and Moscow as your average Russian near staffed pretty
(11:27):
much standard Oligach behavior.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
It seems like he has businesses all over Russia and
like spread throughout the world. But there's nothing like one
big business. That's kind of like pointed out, he just
had multiple incomes from different things.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Whilst we've seen Rappaports sometimes painted as a separate entity
to the other oligachs we've looked into, probably because of
his open anti Putinism, he very much came up in
the same scene of the post Soviet free for all
as they did.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
That would be the majority of his money from that
ten year period, consulting and kind of directing investors into
Russia and then the stock management. He was pretty much
a fixer. He's I guess, like you know, he spoke Russian.
He he got kind of an inn with the White
Knights project. I'm assuming he built connections, kind of figured
out how things work, and then he went from there
(12:19):
and started, yeah, like being a fixer kind of finding
Like somebody wants to sell something, He's like, okay, cool,
I'll go find you know, a rich American, a rich
European to come and buy it out.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What was the story is spun that Rappaport had to
flee Russia due to anti pootin activity. He first left
because he owed the Russian government tax and they charged
him for not paying it. It wasn't even that much money,
not for him anyway. It was around forty thousand US dollars.
But for whatever reasons he was charged, he left the country.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's pretty well documented that, first of all, in the
nineties it was very like shady dealings anything that was
being sold off. You know, we've covered previously how everything
was being privatized and people kind of used different, maybe legal,
but kind of underhanded ways of getting wealthy. I mean,
(13:11):
some things are anecdotal, somethings are recorded where you know,
a lot of crime organizations were in charge. And my
guess would be as if he was doing any kind
of like consulting that we talked about as finding businesses
to sell to rich investors, I would assume he had
to deal with the government and with people who were
in this organized crime kind of figuring out who to
(13:35):
talk to, who's selling, and where to find you know.
So I'm guessing he was involved in this. I just
think you can't avoid it. At that time period, it
just so involved, you know, the government is kind of
especially I mean maybe not at the time, it wasn't
as involved with everything, but it all kind of led
to the government taking over and they were still in charge,
(13:56):
so like he absolutely had to be involved with the
States too, for Saul work on oil and then from
them to you know, sell off essentially state industry, like
he'd have to be at least to some degree.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's clear that at one point Rappaport was cozied up
to the Russian government enough to at least do business
with them back and forth between the US, which would
make both parties a lot of money. At some point
he hit a snagdough, as we mentioned, with the tax problems.
Before this, Rappaport had several companies in Russia, though his
(14:33):
fingers were in many different pies. He was a human piroshki.
He owned the Russian company selling and trading raw materials
such as precious metals. He owned the Russian real estate company.
He owned the Russian catering business. He was into all
sorts until the Russian government shut him down citing various
legal violations. They then took control of all his companies
(14:56):
and liquidated them. The money was theirs. To suspect that
this is what made Rappaport anti Putin as opposed to
any specific humanitarian issues, but that's just a personal hunch.
Sergio andmy tried to find more specific information on Rappaport's
anti Putin activity, but there wasn't actually that much, not
(15:18):
from the time when it apparently happened.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I tried to look back at like more like articles
at the time, you know, kind of what was going
on at that time, instead of him saying recently, like
in the last year, that he was a huge anti
Putine critic.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I couldn't find too much.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I mean, I guess the biggest thing is that he
was working with Navalney, not the Valny, but like the
opposition and then eventually Navalny, and that kind of that's
pointed as the biggest like he was anti Putin, he
was working with like the opposition, But I can't exactly
find that he was such a huge, like outspoken person
(15:55):
against Russia or Putin again until until he went back
to the US.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Then he was more kind of active, I guess in that.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
But at the time that he left, you know, the
government was saying that it's because of the taxes. He
claimed there was because he was being threatened for supporting
the opposition. I mean, you can see both sides, like
maybe he doesn't want to admit to you know, wrongdoing
in terms of taxes, and the government doesn't want people
to think that it's because they're, you know, threatening someone.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But that said, it is actually a tried and tested
method of Putin to create wrongdoing around political opponents in
a bid to crush any opposition. I think it's likely
this happened to Rappaport. Sure he did all the Kremlin
tax but to a multimillionaire the equivalent of forty thousand
dollars is hardly something he couldn't resolve. Maybe it's a
(16:49):
case of two birds one stone. Rappaport is rich and influential,
with strong ties to the US, and he's helping the
Russian opposition parties. So let's get rid of him and
just say it was because of this loose end of
oad taxes. Let's not look too crazy, not yet anyway. Now,
(17:20):
I'm not saying Rappaport didn't genuinely want a new Russia
one without the iron fist of Putin and his squad,
but he did also make a lot of money under
it until the heat got too close.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
He was more than happy to work and Russia Putting
was ready in power for at least a decade at
that point. He was more than happy to be there
throughout everything, you know, when they were kind of when
all these aligars were making their money in the nineties,
it wasn't through the most I don't know, not in
the most honorable ways, not the most not the cleanest way,
(17:55):
you know, So like he knew what he was doing.
I think he was more than happy to profit while
you know, while he was making money, while he wasn't
kind of threatening anyway. I think it's like, I think
maybe he definitely supported the opposition, you know, but I
highly doubt he would have risked his wealth and his
happy life for like to create a putting kind of thing.
(18:18):
I think maybe he truly, you know, he did support
like the opposition and stuff. But at the minute the
US raised their sanctions from two thousand and eight, he
was gone. He was back in the US, back in
the US. Rappaport continued his pursuit of political influence. In
twenty twelve, just as his US sanctions evaporated, Dan Rappaport
(18:39):
began working with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was running
against Obama. Rapperport was an advisor, specifically working on parts
of the campaign that focused on putting more US political
pressure on Putin and Russia. Romney lost Obama one, and
then fast forward to twenty sixteen, Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Arrived Gidbriyan jail. What was There are.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Various nonsense conspiracy theories about Trump being a literal Russian agent.
It's no secret that he often spoke fondly of Putin.
Trump complimented Putin dozens of times before and after he
was elected president in twenty sixteen. Who was particularly excited
that Putin had said he was great and smart, going
(19:28):
on about it several times.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
It got weird.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was like a child impressed that the teacher complimented
its drawing.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
I think when it calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Then it got really dark. After Putin launched the Russian
invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two, which has so
far led to the deaths of ten thousand civilians, including
over five hundred children. Trump said Putin was a genius
for doing this.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I said, this is genius. Putin declares a big portion
of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh that's wonderful.
So Putin is now saying it's independent a large section
of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's
going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That's the
(20:17):
strongest peace force we could use that on our southern border.
That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were
more army tanks that I've ever seen. They going to
keep peace? All right?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
But what does this all have to do with Dan Rappaport,
the now dead American Russian citizen businessman who made his
fortune jumping back and forth between New York and Moscow. Well,
as you can probably guess, Rappaport was not a fan
of Trump. With all the Putin PDA, Rappaport came out
in criticism of Trump and his presidency. He didn't like
(20:51):
that Trump was friendly with Putin, and he made that
very clear publicly. Around this time, in twenty seventeen, Rappaport
was living very nicely with his then wife. He owned
a six bedroom mansion in Washington, DC. And guess who
his neighbors happened to be? The Obamas. Yeah, Rappaport lived
(21:11):
next door to the Obama family, or released as close
as you can get to next door in such an area.
The Obama house was eighty two hundred square foot. You're
hardly sharing a war. Like Russian politicians, American politicians make
themselves filthy rich throughout their careers. Take US Representative Nancy Pelosi,
(21:33):
for example.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Let us remember what President Reagan said, don't bother me
with a question like that.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
She's worth an estimated one hundred and fourteen million dollars.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
When is this?
Speaker 5 (21:45):
When is this?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Strangely enough, her husband, Paul Pelosi, has made several lucrative
stock trades that coincide with the US government legislation in
the technology sector, coincidentally, a sector Rappaport had a business in.
Nancy says, all the lucky stocks of her husband is
all just a coincidence. It's nothing to do with her.
It's definitely not insider trading.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Really really, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Politicians are politicians. They used their positions to do business
to benefit themselves. Dan Rappaport knew this better than anyone.
He'd been moving and shaking within the ven diagram of
international politics and corporate profit for decades. Let's be honest,
this is how we ended up with a six bedroom
mansion in DC. The mansion in question was sold later
(22:35):
in twenty seventeen, when Rappaport and his wife got a divorce.
It sold for five point five million dollars and who
was it sold to? The Trump family. Dan Rappaport, an
outspoken critic of Trump and his friendliness towards Putin, sold
his house to Donald Trump's daughter and her husband, Ivanka
(22:56):
Trump and Jared Kushner. Whilst this is notable, I don't
think it's that unusual. People working in politics, in my
experience as a journalist, often focused on international affairs at least,
generally will fall down in the wind. That is, once
money and power are involved, all bets are off. In politics,
(23:18):
profits almost always comes above integrity. Now, to be fair
to Dan Rapperport, he told a journalist at the time
that the sale of the house was actually nothing to
do with him. He said the money was split between
him and his ex wife and she was the one
selling it personally, though I find out hard to believe.
They also owned a one point five million dollar apartment,
(23:40):
a second three point five million dollar home, and Rappaport's
parents live in a one million dollar Florida beach house.
That Rappaport would just pay no attention to the sale
of his most expensive property seems highly unlikely.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
After the divorce, Dan Rapperport moved to Ukraine. He lived
in a fancy in Kiev. Now remember this was five
years before the full scale invasion. I myself was in
Kiev around this time, as was Sergy. The war was
only in the east of the country then, which was
very far away from Kiev. Everything was completely normal in
(24:15):
the capitol. It's not unusual that someone might move to Kiev,
not then, especially if they have a lot of money.
You could live comfortably there on a normal Western wage,
and if you were rich, you could live like a king. Rapaport, though,
as we know, could live like a king anywhere. He
was worth a fortune. So why are Ukraine well? It
(24:36):
seems this was all part of another business venture. He
set up a residential investment firm, putting money into new
apartments in Kiev. You also got remarried and had a
baby daughter. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February twenty twenty two,
Rappaport's new equally comfortable life was upended. He took his
(24:56):
family and flew back to the US, living once again
in Washingrington, DC, where he'd later die after falling from
the apartment window. Before his death, Rappaport was openly supportive
of Ukraine's resistance to the invasion, and even donated himself
to various Ukraine war efforts, as well as encouraging others
to do so on his social media. So what do
(25:20):
we think actually happened here? This is a tricky one.
There are many potential leads that all end up merging together.
So was Rappaport pushed out of a window by a
political or business rival? Did he jump or did he
just accidentally fall? Personally me at the start, I was
(25:40):
beginning to think this might be the case where really
a cigar is just a cigar. Okay, Rapperport was involved
in all this politics and business, but maybe he did
just fall. He didn't seem hard enough target to warrant killing. However,
there's a lot more to this case than it first appears.
Even now after all of this, as we know, Dan
(26:04):
Rappaport died from falling out of a window. There are, however,
several unusual details I'm yet to mention as I didn't
want to bias the listener. From the start, Dan Rappaport
owned the Soho Rooms club with a business partner named
Sergei to Kachenko, also known in Russia as Sergei Jeff.
(26:26):
Sergei Jeff died in January twenty seventeen. He died in
Moscow after falling out of the window of his luxury apartment,
the same way his business partner Dan Rappaport would die
just five years later, an incredible coincidence. There were even
(26:47):
more bizarre parts of this case we yet to look into.
Rappaport's dog was allegedly found wandering around in a park
near his apartment after he'd fallen out of the window
and died. Strapped to the dog's collar was a supposed
suicide note and for some reason cash. If that wasn't
(27:07):
weird enough, there's even more. Rappaport is alleged to be
the man behind a pretty popular but fake senior Pentagon
Russian analyst known online as David Duberg. Du Berg was
regularly quoted by the opposition in Russian and Ukrainian media,
(27:28):
and he was cited as a professional analyst, but he
didn't exist, and Rappaport is not an analyst. I believe
Rappapault was behind a team that were actually the true
identities of the people writing under the pseudonym David Duberg.
The plot thickens. We'll be looking into all of this
(27:50):
in depth in the next episode of sad Oligach. Sad
Oliger is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media
and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched, and edited by me Jake
(28:16):
Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenkok co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music
by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle, soundmix.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
By Splicing Block.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Go to Jakehanrahan dot com for more information.
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
A window, slashed his wrists, was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
the space of nine months. Many of the debts are
suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created
(00:32):
by me Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. Sad
Oligarch is a H eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio.
This case concerned someone a bit different. He died in Washington.
(00:53):
He was anti Poutine, he had connections to both US
political parties, and he's actually not e and Russian. He is, however,
dead and the circumstances around his death are really strange.
On August fourteenth, twenty twenty two, Latvian born Dan Rappaport,
(01:15):
fifty two, was in his luxury apartment in Washington, DC.
He lived in the city's West End, an upmarket area
with the finest restaurants hotels and condos.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Naturally, Rappaport was rich.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He made his money in a number of different ways,
including financial investments in which he oversaw large international projects
concerning US Russian oil cooperation. That evening, police in DC
got an alert on their patrol car radio.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
There's been a jumper in the West End.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
As they pulled up to the scene, a man was
found lying in a heap on the floor. He'd fallen
out of the window of his fancy apartment, plummeting nine
stories onto the pavement.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It was Dan Rappaport, of what was left.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Of him, He'd fallen around ninety feet to the concrete.
That's a serious fall. Around ninety nine percent of people
who fall that distance don't survive. Dan Rappaport was no exception.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital and
his pockets was two six hundred and ten dollars in cash,
(02:26):
a broken phone, and the lanyard with a key attached.
An autopsy report released in November twenty twenty two stated
that Rappaport died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries as
a result of the fall. However, his cause of death
was ruled as undetermined. His wife said he showed no
(02:47):
signs of depression and doesn't believe it was a suicide.
They'd made plans for the following day and Rappaport had
several business meetings scheduled. Police closed the case, but they
said they're open to further investigate if any tips come
in or further evidence appears. So, who was done, Rappaport
and why would you have any connection to the dead
(03:09):
Russians mentioned throughout this series. Let's start with the Soho
Rooms Rappaport nightclub. The Soho Rooms was a high end
nightclub in Moscow. It was opened by Rappaport in two
thousand and seven. Within a few years of its launch,
the club became somewhat of a mecca for Russia's rich,
(03:32):
cosmopolitan party scene. Situated in a trendy building that's a
mix of Art Deco and Soviet brutalism, the Soho Rooms
was the place to be if you wanted to flow
in your money and indulge in expensive taste. Reserving a
single table cost one hundred thousand rubles, which is over
one thousand US dollars. That's the average monthly wage for
(03:55):
your everyday Muscovite. International musicians performed regularly the Soho Rooms,
including Johnny Depp and his awful band Hollywood Vampires. It
became the go to club for it girls, politicians, and businessmen.
If you like fine dining, strong drugs, and expensive liquor,
the Soho Rooms was the place to be. It became
(04:18):
synonymous with Russia's party elite. It was very well known.
If you weren't there on Friday or Saturday night, he
didn't matter. Rappaport himself was by no means a silent
partner in all of this. He loved the nightlife, the
seeing the money. By all accounts, he basked in the
glory of running a club for the elite. According to
(04:39):
a Russian journalist familiar with the culture of the Soho Rooms,
Rappaport knew everyone that mattered, and everyone that mattered knew him.
It was a legend in Russia's party scene. The Soho
Rooms expanded with franchises across Russia and won in Dubai. Naturally,
the club turned over big profits. Rappaport lived a lavish
(05:01):
lifestyle and apparently he owned several million dollar apartments around Moscow.
Clearly life was good, or at least it was until
Rappaport had to flee Russia due to his anti pootin activity. However,
how serious him fleeing was at the time is up
for debate, as Rappaport allegedly returned to Russia several times
(05:25):
after being apparently forced to leave. He continued to build
what was considered a cult following amongst the party scene
until the Soho rooms was closed down in twenty eighteen.
At this time, the Russian ruble was at one of
its highest values. Rappaport was making a killing four years later,
though he'd wind up dead on a DC pavement. Nightclubs
(05:49):
is not how Dan Rappaport first got rich stock. He
got his start in economics, as Me and Surgery discussed.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
He grew up in the US and he got his
really from Houston, Texas. From there he went into an
investing firm, Fibro. They focused like raw materials, so any
kind of oil, just mining things like that. I think
he graduated somewhere in the early nineties and he started
working at Fibro and they were working on a project
(06:21):
in Russia, one of the first like oil extraction projects.
The company basically got three stakes in three different oil
fields and they were trying to develop those.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They were one of the.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
First companies to go in and they were one of
the first companies to actually set up shop like they
were I think by nineteen ninety one nineteen eighty two,
they were already pumping oil and selling it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And so a familiar pattern emerges. This is yet another
wealthy businessman with heavy ties to the Russian oil and
gas industry who's died in mysterious circumstances. This guy even
fell out of a window. When Rappaport first entered this
industry in the nineties, big money was made immediately, and
(07:03):
the Russian government quickly stepped in to increase their cut.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I think it was around twenty k years dr day.
It did slow down. That project kind of fizzled out.
It was kind of killed off by the Russian government
because they were they were really getting a hang out
of the whole capitalism thing, and they were putting a
bunch of taxes on from what it seems like everything
you know, on the transport of oil, on companies operating
(07:30):
in it, then forcing them to pay and extremely devalued ruble,
which kind of just I guess, kind of killed that obviously,
other companies to cover and you know, now oil is massive,
but at that time, like that project called White Knights
didn't exactly work out.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
The White Knights project was the first joint Russian American
operation designed to open up more oil fields across Siberia.
White Knights was actually conceived before the collapse of the
Soviet Union, when the UA SSR was opening up to
foreign investment in the late eighties. As Sergey said, White
Knights began turning over twenty thousand dollars a day within
(08:09):
just a few months of its launch. By nineteen ninety two,
though the project collapsed. Rappaports stayed in Russia after White
Knights ended. He had experience in both the USSR and
the US, having grown up in Soviet Latvia but also
getting educated in America, a very useful set of credentials
in the banditry period of post Soviet Russia.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
From then on he stayed in Russia.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And you know, being from a Russian family, they escaped
from Latvia like Ussar Latvia to the US.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
He's like a US citizen. He can be the middleman.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, he speaks Russian, of course, and he became
this middleman for investors and the New Russia. That's kind
of you know how they say selling out, They're kind
of everything that was once government owned is now going
to private owners. And he was this middleman looking for
American European investors, helping them make these deals of purchasing
(09:12):
these massive facilities, anything that can be sold, basically that
was being sold any industry that the USSR had. He
was kind of making those deals.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
After this, Rappaport went on to work at an investment
firm Center Invest, essentially doing the same things he'd been
doing before, working as a fixer or a middleman for
Western companies looking to capitalize on the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Bleed it dry, ignore the people profit. By
(09:52):
the two thousands, Rappaport was the manager at sent To Invest,
with offices in both Moscow and New York. Over the decade,
he went from wealthy to very wealthy. This is when
Rappaport made the bulk of his money, enabling him to
invest in more exciting ventures like the Soho rooms in Moscow.
Rappaport opened that in two thousand and seven, but then
(10:14):
the following year he hit a roadblock. The US government
puts sanctions on him.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
It seems like the charges were a securities fraud and
even though he you know, is sanctioned, he was kind of.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
In trouble with the US government.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Five years later, all the charges were dropped and he
returned to the US.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So Dan Rappaport was accused and charged with securities fraud.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
But what is that.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, basically, it's high tier white collar lying. It's also
referred to as stock fraud or investment fraud, and it's
a serious crime. Basically, it involves misrepresenting a deal by
either omitting certain details or just outright lying to urge
investors to make decisions. Stockbrokers, brokerage corporations, and investment banks
(11:05):
are often involved in securities fraud in some way, most
of them get away with it. That Rapperport's charges were
dropped after five years doesn't mean much in my opinion
either way. He made his money capitalizing on the downfall
of post Soviet Russia, skipping back and forth between New
York and Moscow as your average Russian near staffed pretty
(11:27):
much standard Oligach behavior.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
It seems like he has businesses all over Russia and
like spread throughout the world. But there's nothing like one
big business. That's kind of like pointed out, he just
had multiple incomes from different things.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Whilst we've seen Rappaports sometimes painted as a separate entity
to the other oligachs we've looked into, probably because of
his open anti Putinism, he very much came up in
the same scene of the post Soviet free for all
as they did.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
That would be the majority of his money from that
ten year period, consulting and kind of directing investors into
Russia and then the stock management. He was pretty much
a fixer. He's I guess, like you know, he spoke Russian.
He he got kind of an inn with the White
Knights project. I'm assuming he built connections, kind of figured
out how things work, and then he went from there
(12:19):
and started, yeah, like being a fixer kind of finding
Like somebody wants to sell something, He's like, okay, cool,
I'll go find you know, a rich American, a rich
European to come and buy it out.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What was the story is spun that Rappaport had to
flee Russia due to anti pootin activity. He first left
because he owed the Russian government tax and they charged
him for not paying it. It wasn't even that much money,
not for him anyway. It was around forty thousand US dollars.
But for whatever reasons he was charged, he left the country.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's pretty well documented that, first of all, in the
nineties it was very like shady dealings anything that was
being sold off. You know, we've covered previously how everything
was being privatized and people kind of used different, maybe legal,
but kind of underhanded ways of getting wealthy. I mean,
(13:11):
some things are anecdotal, somethings are recorded where you know,
a lot of crime organizations were in charge. And my
guess would be as if he was doing any kind
of like consulting that we talked about as finding businesses
to sell to rich investors, I would assume he had
to deal with the government and with people who were
in this organized crime kind of figuring out who to
(13:35):
talk to, who's selling, and where to find you know.
So I'm guessing he was involved in this. I just
think you can't avoid it. At that time period, it
just so involved, you know, the government is kind of
especially I mean maybe not at the time, it wasn't
as involved with everything, but it all kind of led
to the government taking over and they were still in charge,
(13:56):
so like he absolutely had to be involved with the
States too, for Saul work on oil and then from
them to you know, sell off essentially state industry, like
he'd have to be at least to some degree.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's clear that at one point Rappaport was cozied up
to the Russian government enough to at least do business
with them back and forth between the US, which would
make both parties a lot of money. At some point
he hit a snagdough, as we mentioned, with the tax problems.
Before this, Rappaport had several companies in Russia, though his
(14:33):
fingers were in many different pies. He was a human piroshki.
He owned the Russian company selling and trading raw materials
such as precious metals. He owned the Russian real estate company.
He owned the Russian catering business. He was into all
sorts until the Russian government shut him down citing various
legal violations. They then took control of all his companies
(14:56):
and liquidated them. The money was theirs. To suspect that
this is what made Rappaport anti Putin as opposed to
any specific humanitarian issues, but that's just a personal hunch.
Sergio andmy tried to find more specific information on Rappaport's
anti Putin activity, but there wasn't actually that much, not
(15:18):
from the time when it apparently happened.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I tried to look back at like more like articles
at the time, you know, kind of what was going
on at that time, instead of him saying recently, like
in the last year, that he was a huge anti
Putine critic.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I couldn't find too much.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I mean, I guess the biggest thing is that he
was working with Navalney, not the Valny, but like the
opposition and then eventually Navalny, and that kind of that's
pointed as the biggest like he was anti Putin, he
was working with like the opposition, But I can't exactly
find that he was such a huge, like outspoken person
(15:55):
against Russia or Putin again until until he went back
to the US.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Then he was more kind of active, I guess in that.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
But at the time that he left, you know, the
government was saying that it's because of the taxes. He
claimed there was because he was being threatened for supporting
the opposition. I mean, you can see both sides, like
maybe he doesn't want to admit to you know, wrongdoing
in terms of taxes, and the government doesn't want people
to think that it's because they're, you know, threatening someone.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But that said, it is actually a tried and tested
method of Putin to create wrongdoing around political opponents in
a bid to crush any opposition. I think it's likely
this happened to Rappaport. Sure he did all the Kremlin
tax but to a multimillionaire the equivalent of forty thousand
dollars is hardly something he couldn't resolve. Maybe it's a
(16:49):
case of two birds one stone. Rappaport is rich and influential,
with strong ties to the US, and he's helping the
Russian opposition parties. So let's get rid of him and
just say it was because of this loose end of
oad taxes. Let's not look too crazy, not yet anyway. Now,
(17:20):
I'm not saying Rappaport didn't genuinely want a new Russia
one without the iron fist of Putin and his squad,
but he did also make a lot of money under
it until the heat got too close.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
He was more than happy to work and Russia Putting
was ready in power for at least a decade at
that point. He was more than happy to be there
throughout everything, you know, when they were kind of when
all these aligars were making their money in the nineties,
it wasn't through the most I don't know, not in
the most honorable ways, not the most not the cleanest way,
(17:55):
you know, So like he knew what he was doing.
I think he was more than happy to profit while
you know, while he was making money, while he wasn't
kind of threatening anyway. I think it's like, I think
maybe he definitely supported the opposition, you know, but I
highly doubt he would have risked his wealth and his
happy life for like to create a putting kind of thing.
(18:18):
I think maybe he truly, you know, he did support
like the opposition and stuff. But at the minute the
US raised their sanctions from two thousand and eight, he
was gone. He was back in the US, back in
the US. Rappaport continued his pursuit of political influence. In
twenty twelve, just as his US sanctions evaporated, Dan Rappaport
(18:39):
began working with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was running
against Obama. Rapperport was an advisor, specifically working on parts
of the campaign that focused on putting more US political
pressure on Putin and Russia. Romney lost Obama one, and
then fast forward to twenty sixteen, Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Arrived Gidbriyan jail. What was There are.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Various nonsense conspiracy theories about Trump being a literal Russian agent.
It's no secret that he often spoke fondly of Putin.
Trump complimented Putin dozens of times before and after he
was elected president in twenty sixteen. Who was particularly excited
that Putin had said he was great and smart, going
(19:28):
on about it several times.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
It got weird.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was like a child impressed that the teacher complimented
its drawing.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
I think when it calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Then it got really dark. After Putin launched the Russian
invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two, which has so
far led to the deaths of ten thousand civilians, including
over five hundred children. Trump said Putin was a genius
for doing this.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I said, this is genius. Putin declares a big portion
of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh that's wonderful.
So Putin is now saying it's independent a large section
of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's
going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That's the
(20:17):
strongest peace force we could use that on our southern border.
That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were
more army tanks that I've ever seen. They going to
keep peace? All right?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
But what does this all have to do with Dan Rappaport,
the now dead American Russian citizen businessman who made his
fortune jumping back and forth between New York and Moscow. Well,
as you can probably guess, Rappaport was not a fan
of Trump. With all the Putin PDA, Rappaport came out
in criticism of Trump and his presidency. He didn't like
(20:51):
that Trump was friendly with Putin, and he made that
very clear publicly. Around this time, in twenty seventeen, Rappaport
was living very nicely with his then wife. He owned
a six bedroom mansion in Washington, DC. And guess who
his neighbors happened to be? The Obamas. Yeah, Rappaport lived
(21:11):
next door to the Obama family, or released as close
as you can get to next door in such an area.
The Obama house was eighty two hundred square foot. You're
hardly sharing a war. Like Russian politicians, American politicians make
themselves filthy rich throughout their careers. Take US Representative Nancy Pelosi,
(21:33):
for example.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Let us remember what President Reagan said, don't bother me
with a question like that.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
She's worth an estimated one hundred and fourteen million dollars.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
When is this?
Speaker 5 (21:45):
When is this?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Strangely enough, her husband, Paul Pelosi, has made several lucrative
stock trades that coincide with the US government legislation in
the technology sector, coincidentally, a sector Rappaport had a business in.
Nancy says, all the lucky stocks of her husband is
all just a coincidence. It's nothing to do with her.
It's definitely not insider trading.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Really really, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Politicians are politicians. They used their positions to do business
to benefit themselves. Dan Rappaport knew this better than anyone.
He'd been moving and shaking within the ven diagram of
international politics and corporate profit for decades. Let's be honest,
this is how we ended up with a six bedroom
mansion in DC. The mansion in question was sold later
(22:35):
in twenty seventeen, when Rappaport and his wife got a divorce.
It sold for five point five million dollars and who
was it sold to? The Trump family. Dan Rappaport, an
outspoken critic of Trump and his friendliness towards Putin, sold
his house to Donald Trump's daughter and her husband, Ivanka
(22:56):
Trump and Jared Kushner. Whilst this is notable, I don't
think it's that unusual. People working in politics, in my
experience as a journalist, often focused on international affairs at least,
generally will fall down in the wind. That is, once
money and power are involved, all bets are off. In politics,
(23:18):
profits almost always comes above integrity. Now, to be fair
to Dan Rapperport, he told a journalist at the time
that the sale of the house was actually nothing to
do with him. He said the money was split between
him and his ex wife and she was the one
selling it personally, though I find out hard to believe.
They also owned a one point five million dollar apartment,
(23:40):
a second three point five million dollar home, and Rappaport's
parents live in a one million dollar Florida beach house.
That Rappaport would just pay no attention to the sale
of his most expensive property seems highly unlikely.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
After the divorce, Dan Rapperport moved to Ukraine. He lived
in a fancy in Kiev. Now remember this was five
years before the full scale invasion. I myself was in
Kiev around this time, as was Sergy. The war was
only in the east of the country then, which was
very far away from Kiev. Everything was completely normal in
(24:15):
the capitol. It's not unusual that someone might move to Kiev,
not then, especially if they have a lot of money.
You could live comfortably there on a normal Western wage,
and if you were rich, you could live like a king. Rapaport, though,
as we know, could live like a king anywhere. He
was worth a fortune. So why are Ukraine well? It
(24:36):
seems this was all part of another business venture. He
set up a residential investment firm, putting money into new
apartments in Kiev. You also got remarried and had a
baby daughter. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February twenty twenty two,
Rappaport's new equally comfortable life was upended. He took his
(24:56):
family and flew back to the US, living once again
in Washingrington, DC, where he'd later die after falling from
the apartment window. Before his death, Rappaport was openly supportive
of Ukraine's resistance to the invasion, and even donated himself
to various Ukraine war efforts, as well as encouraging others
to do so on his social media. So what do
(25:20):
we think actually happened here? This is a tricky one.
There are many potential leads that all end up merging together.
So was Rappaport pushed out of a window by a
political or business rival? Did he jump or did he
just accidentally fall? Personally me at the start, I was
(25:40):
beginning to think this might be the case where really
a cigar is just a cigar. Okay, Rapperport was involved
in all this politics and business, but maybe he did
just fall. He didn't seem hard enough target to warrant killing. However,
there's a lot more to this case than it first appears.
Even now after all of this, as we know, Dan
(26:04):
Rappaport died from falling out of a window. There are, however,
several unusual details I'm yet to mention as I didn't
want to bias the listener. From the start, Dan Rappaport
owned the Soho Rooms club with a business partner named
Sergei to Kachenko, also known in Russia as Sergei Jeff.
(26:26):
Sergei Jeff died in January twenty seventeen. He died in
Moscow after falling out of the window of his luxury apartment,
the same way his business partner Dan Rappaport would die
just five years later, an incredible coincidence. There were even
(26:47):
more bizarre parts of this case we yet to look into.
Rappaport's dog was allegedly found wandering around in a park
near his apartment after he'd fallen out of the window
and died. Strapped to the dog's collar was a supposed
suicide note and for some reason cash. If that wasn't
(27:07):
weird enough, there's even more. Rappaport is alleged to be
the man behind a pretty popular but fake senior Pentagon
Russian analyst known online as David Duberg. Du Berg was
regularly quoted by the opposition in Russian and Ukrainian media,
(27:28):
and he was cited as a professional analyst, but he
didn't exist, and Rappaport is not an analyst. I believe
Rappapault was behind a team that were actually the true
identities of the people writing under the pseudonym David Duberg.
The plot thickens. We'll be looking into all of this
(27:50):
in depth in the next episode of sad Oligach. Sad
Oliger is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media
and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched, and edited by me Jake
(28:16):
Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenkok co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music
by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle, soundmix.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
By Splicing Block.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Go to Jakehanrahan dot com for more information.
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