Oleg Tinkoff built the world's largest digital bank from scratch in 2005, growing it to a $10 billion stake before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His anti-war stance prompted the Kremlin to force the bank's delisting and strip him of most of his wealth. He's now fighting leukemia while continuing to criticize the regime.
The Russian Richard Branson. His name is Oleg Tinkoff. He starts this bank with $70 million of his own money and he actually buys a bank. He started this in 2005 and it gets huge to the point where Goldman invests into it and becomes massive. Up until 2021, it was the second largest issuer of credit cards in Russia. It was the largest digital bank in the world. And so it goes public. His stake in it is worth $10 billion. Here's where the story gets crazy. Russia does not like Oleg. He talks a ton of shit when they invade the Ukraine. He's very anti- anti-war. He says, Putin, you're full of shit. All these oligarchs in Russia, you're all full of shit. Eventually they delist Tinkoff Bank, so it's no longer public, and he loses most all of his money. Now he has leukemia and he's dying. He's still talking mad shit. He says, they wanted to punish me for this. And to that I say, fuck them. I want to die with good karma and for people to remember me for being strong and fair. And so he's paid the price for being outspoken and he's still being outspoken.
