{"id":667068,"date":"2026-07-01T01:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667068\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T01:05:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:05:38","slug":"he-isnt-political-the-ukrainian-born-oligarch-targeted-by-a-monaco-bomber-monaco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667068\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He isn\u2019t political\u2019: the Ukrainian-born oligarch targeted by a Monaco bomber | Monaco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody paid much attention to the man with the backpack, as he approached the entrance to a beige-coloured Monaco<\/a> apartment building. It was 9pm, Monday. The street \u2013 rue R\u00e9v\u00e9rend-P\u00e8re-Louis-Frolla \u2013 is located in a quiet hillside part of the wealthy principality, close to the border with France.<\/p>\n

The man left his bag on the front steps. Soon afterwards, the Ukrainian-born oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev emerged, together with his wife and their 13-year-old child. There was an explosion<\/a> and CCTV captured an image of the suspect, wearing a black jacket and a bucket hat, running from the scene towards the neighbouring French town of Beausoleil.<\/p>\n

All three victims were injured and taken to hospital. According to reports, the oligarch\u2019s wife was critically hurt. As European police searched for the bomber, the unanswered question was why someone wanted to kill Iermolaiev, one of Ukraine\u2019s richest businessmen, with a fortune estimated at $225m (\u00a3170m)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iermolaiev is a real estate developer who was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. His company, the Alef Group, also has interests in agriculture and vodka production. In 2018 the oligarch gave up his Ukrainian passport and acquired EU citizenship from Cyprus. As well as Monaco, he is a frequent visitor to London and Paris.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda<\/a> identified the oligarch as a member of the \u201cMonaco battalion\u201d, an ironic reference to wealthy Ukrainians who live in comfort abroad while their fellow citizens experience daily Russian drone and missile attacks. Iermolaiev enjoyed the high life and drove a \u00a3250,000 Bentley Flying Spur, it noted.<\/p>\n

The following year, Ukraine<\/a> imposed personal sanctions on Iermolaiev after an investigation by the country\u2019s SBU security agency. It said the 58-year-old oligarch continued to trade alcohol in occupied Crimea and paid millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian treasury. His assets were frozen and he was prohibited from doing business.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with Ukrainian media, Iermolaiev strongly denied the allegations, calling them \u201ccompletely surreal\u201d. He claimed Russia seized his grape growing and cognac enterprise in Crimea when it annexed the peninsula in 2014. \u201cWe lost everything,\u201d he said, adding that he had hired a team of lawyers to get the sanctions against him lifted.<\/p>\n

The oligarch condemned Russia\u2019s invasion and said a missile strike on Dnipro airport had destroyed his private plane. Chechen militants stole his agricultural machinery, he added. \u201cI despise our enemies and believe that they will bear responsibility for the grief they brought to Ukrainian land and to my hometown,\u201d he told RBK Media<\/a>, saying he gave money to Ukraine\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n

Several sources on Tuesday dismissed the idea the audacious attack in Monaco could have been carried out by Ukraine\u2019s special services. \u201cHe\u2019s an opportunist, not an open enemy,\u201d one remarked. Another described him as someone with \u201cno ideology\u201d and \u201czero political views\u201d who could not \u201cby definition be a Russian asset\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe isn\u2019t a political person,\u201d somebody who knew him socially said. \u201cHe\u2019s a businessman. Vadym is nicer than 95% of people on that level \u2026 He\u2019s always smiling and pleasant to be around, a typical Dnipro Jew. He likes life, tells endless jokes and speaks in a rather stumbling manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more plausible explanation for Monday evening\u2019s bomb attack might be claims that the oligarch was connected to an alleged call centre scam, the sources said. They added: \u201cIt looks like something very, very personal. There are security cameras on every street corner in Monaco. That\u2019s why rich people feel safe there. The hit doesn\u2019t seem to be the work of a top professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last year, Iermolaiev\u2019s son, Artur, was detained in Cyprus at the request of Interpol and subsequently extradited to Estonia. There, he was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud. According to Estonian investigators, Iermolaiev Jr, along with three other defendants, created fraudulent call centres in Ukraine that \u201coffered fictitious investment opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every day<\/p>\n

Sign up to Headlines Europe<\/p>\n

A digest of the morning’s main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As a result, between 2019 and 2022, the defendants received over \u20ac100m, \u20ac5.4m of which came from Estonian residents. Iermolaiev Jr entered into<\/a> a plea bargain, received a suspended sentence, paid \u20ac8.5m and left Estonia shortly afterwards, the media outlet Meduza reported<\/a>. He is now banned from entering Estonia.<\/p>\n

Chechen criminals are known to be behind many call centre scams, which have led to thousands of Russian pensioners being defrauded of their savings. In March suspected Chechen gangsters kidnapped the sons of two prominent businessmen from Dnipro, while they were on holiday in Bali.<\/a> The body of one of them, 28-year-old Igor Komarov, was found chopped up on a beach.<\/p>\n

According to Ukrainian media<\/a>, Komarov admitted his role in the fraudulent call centre business. Before killing him, his captors demanded a $10m ransom. His friend managed to escape. Ukraine\u2019s main police investigation unit opened a case into Komarov\u2019s murder and kidnapping, together with their Indonesian counterparts.<\/p>\n

A Chechen connection to the Monaco bombing is so far unproven. Sources who know the low-profile oligarch say he is someone who typically tries to avoid conflict, especially with government, and prefers to settle disputes by making backroom deals. In 2024 he transferred some of his assets to his 21-year-old daughter, Sofia, who lives in London and Cyprus, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whoever the perpetrator, other members of the \u201cMonaco battalion\u201d are likely to be decidedly more nervous in future. \u201cEveryone is in shock,\u201d one regular Ukrainian visitor to the principality admitted. They added: \u201cVadym is a very nice man. The TV screens and cameras didn\u2019t protect him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody paid much attention to the man with the backpack, as he approached the entrance to a beige-coloured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-667068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}