53-year-old businessman Vyacheslav Taran died after the helicopter crashed near the resort town Vilefrance Surmé after take off from Lausanne in Switzerland.
Taran is the third cryptocurrency entrepreneur to die suddenly in recent weeks. Tiantian Kullender, 30, died in his sleep last week, while fellow crypto millionaire Nikolai Moushekhian, 29, drowned on a beach in Puerto Rico after tweeting that he feared the CIA and Mossad because the intelligence services wanted to assassinate him.
Since the crash that killed Taran took place in clear weather and another passenger canceled his flight at the last minute, the billionaire’s sudden death is now shrouded in mystery.
Trading and investment platforms Libertex And Forex club Co-founder Taran was flying from Lausanne with an experienced pilot in an H130 helicopter when it crashed on Nov. 25 at around 1pm. A 35-year-old French driver also died.
A deputy prosecutor from Nice, who visited the scene, said he could not rule out the culpability of third parties. Another yet-to-be-identified passenger was supposed to join Taran on the flight, but they canceled at the last minute, according to local media.
Taran, a successful offshore professional who has lived in Monaco for the past decade, fathered three children with his wife Olga, the founder of the Hello Monaco media group.
Possible connection with the Russian special services
Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency said, without citing any evidence, that Taran is a “billionaire crypto-businessman with alleged ties to Russia’s foreign intelligence service”. .”
Mysterious deaths of Russian businessmen
Since the beginning of the Russian war, several Russian businessmen have died in Ukraine under mysterious circumstances.
Viktor Cherkesov, 72, a KGB spy and mentor to Vladimir Putin who was demoted after publicly criticizing the Kremlin leader, died earlier this month from an unexplained “serious illness”.
Among the recent deaths is 39-year-old Ivan Pechorin, director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, who “fell overboard” from his yacht in September.
In September, Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, a public relations manager for Russian Railways, was shot and killed in his Moscow apartment, and a 61-year-old man was found hanged outside his Moscow home. Gazprom executive director Alexander Tyulakov.
