Former top manager of Novatek and his family were found dead from a "double murder suicide."
Former top manager of Novatek and his family were found dead from a "double murder suicide."
Another senior former executive dies from "suicide." This is the fourth incident in three months
Former top manager of Novatek and his family were found dead from a "double murder suicide."
The former top manager of Russia's largest private gas company, Novatek, was found dead in Spain. Millionaire Sergei Protosenya, along with his wife and daughter, died on Tuesday in a rented villa in the resort town of Lloret de Mar near Barcelona.
According to preliminary data, 55-year-old Protosenya hacked his wife and daughter to death with an ax and a knife, after which he hanged himself in a garden outside. The weapons of the alleged crime were found next to the body of a millionaire.
Protosenya is the former chief accountant of Novatek, he was a member of the company's board with his fortune was estimated at 400 million euros. The millionaire and his family primarily resided in France. The neighbors of the family in Catalonia did not hear complaints and screams and the family didn’t have a history or exhibit any signs of violence.
His wife Nataliya, 53, and his 15-year-old daughter were stabbed to death while sleeping. Sergey, 55-year-old, appeared hanging on the railing of some stairs in the garden. According to CatalunyaDiari, The Mossos d'Esquadra police are now investigating whether it could be a masked mafia crime.
There were no suicide notes at the crime scene, and police are investigating calls and messages from family phones. Another detail that caught the attention of the police is that despite the brutal murder of his wife and daughter, Protosenya did not have any traces of blood or signs of struggle on his clothes. So another hypothesis is that the murder and suicide were staged. Also, a sock was found at the crime scene, and it may have been put on the ax handle so as not to leave marks. The weapons and the sock have been sent for analysis to see if there is any DNA residue. They are also checking security cameras to see if anyone else entered the estate.
A few days ago, another former senior tycoon linked to the gas business was found dead next to the bodies of his wife and daughter in Moscow. In the case of Moscow, 51-year-old Vladislav Avaev was found dead with a gun in his hand. His wife, Elena, and their 13-year-old daughter were shot dead with police calling it a double murder-suicide. Avaev was a former VP of Gazprombank, a shareholder in Novatek, and a senior Russian government official.
At the beginning of this year, there were two cases of former senior executives from Gazprom committing suicide. Apparently, it is a dangerous industry to retire from.
From Fontanka:
February 25, 2022, 23:21
The body of the Deputy General Director of Gazprom's Unified Settlement Center for Corporate Security was found in an elite cottage settlement in the Vyborgsky District.
There was a note next to it. This was reported on February 25 by 47news .
Early in the morning, the police received a message about the death of a man on Rubinovaya Street in Leninsky. The officers who arrived at the scene found 61-year-old Alexander Tyulakov dead. He worked as Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center (UCC) of Gazprom for Corporate Security. This division performs the functions of the treasury of the entire monopoly, clarifies 47news.
The circumstances of the incident are established by the Investigative Committee of the Leningrad Region. Gazprom ERC could not comment on the incident. A month earlier, Leonid Shulman, 60, the head of Gazprom Invest's transport service, was found dead in the same village, also with a note.
Last fall, the US arrested one of the most influential executives over alleged tax misconduct linked to tens of millions of dollars held in offshore accounts. The Department of Justice said Mark Gyetvay, chief financial officer at Novatek, allegedly schemed to defraud the US by hiding ownership and control over “substantial offshore assets’‘ that at one point were worth more than $93m. He was also accused of failing to file and pay taxes on millions of dollars in income. For more info on this story. The main owners of Novatek are Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko, both cronies belonging to Putin’s inner circle.
So lose money & Putin has your whole family killed.. brutally? Wonder if Trump & his family members are sweating about now? 🤔😈
Is it possible these deaths cleared the way for recent denial of service to Bulgaria/Poland? I don’t know structure of RUS energy providers, so totally speculating here.