Dirty schemes of “Da Vinci Capital” by Oleg Zhelezko

The financial market is filled with various cheaters. Anywhere in the world, the financial sector will always expect the opportunity to both rise and fall. Times go by, but this truth remains the same: someone will be lucky, and he will be able to earn decent capital, while others may be left with nothing at all.

Oleg Zhelezko – is a representative of a caste who is lucky. Thanks to dirty schemes, luck and the ability to make the right contacts, he managed to set up a business and earn decent money. But how long will fortune smile on the scandalous financier Oleg Zhelezko?

Zhelezka’s career began to roll out in the Renaissance Capital financial group. In the bank of the same name, Oleg Zhelezko headed the department of structural products in 2004. At this time, he meets one of the bank’s richest clients, Israeli businessman Benny Steinmetz. In 2007, Zhelezko, as if sensing that something was wrong, left his position at the bank. He left the “Renaissance Capital” not in vain. The following year, when the World Financial Crisis began, the bank was hit hard. Its owner, New Zealand businessman Stephen Jennings, almost lost his entire financial business in Russia.

Stephen Jennings

The fact is that Renaissance Capital has always made bets on risky assets. The bank made bets on the so-called “repo” transactions – shares with an obligation to buy them back. We will not delve into economic processes, but note that the share of such transactions in the bank in 2007 reached $1 billion a day. That is, huge sums equals huge risk. Oleg Zhelezko, who by that time had achieved results at Renaissance Capital, being in good standing with the management, decides to leave the financial institution. Here the banker’s instinct worked. If in 2007 the cost of “Renaissance” was about 4 billion dollars, already in 2008 the bank almost went bankrupt. The situation was saved by the oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, who bought out a minority stake for $500 million, giving the bank a chance to survive. As a result, this played a cruel joke on the New Zealand owner of Renaissance Jenningson, because after 4 years the bank did not overcome the crisis, so the businessman had to sell his share to Prokhorov. And not for 4 billion, as it was estimated in 2007, but for a very modest 30 million dollars.

Mikhail Prokhorov

But this no longer interested Oleg Zhelezko. He fulfilled his main goal in Renaissance Capital – he gained the necessary acquaintance. Immediately after his dismissal, he receives funds to open his own business from an Israeli billionaire with a criminal train, Benny Steinmetz. Zhelezko founds the company Da Vinci Capital, whose main profile is financial investments.

Benny Steinmetz

To understand the situation with the startup Zhelezko, you need to figure out who financed the start of the work of a legal and financial company. And so, get acquainted, Benny Steinmetz – partner and main financial donor of Oleg Zhelezko. It was thanks to the funds of the Israeli billionaire that the former manager of Renaissance Capital got the opportunity to justify DA Vinci Capital. Why is Steinmetz famous? Here is the most interesting thing: in his homeland, in Israel, he is suspected of money laundering, in Romania he is suspected of a raider seizure of land, in Switzerland and the United States, law enforcement officers are looking for him for fraud and corruption in Guinea. In general, not a person, but a walking international criminal code. It is difficult to count the number of Steinmetz’s arrests, but at the same time, he always managed to remain at large. Fortune turned away from the swindler in 2020. In Romania, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison in absentia, and in 2021, in Switzerland, the sentence against Steinmetz gained legal force. He will serve the next 4 years in a Swiss prison.

Benny Steinmetz in the dock, 2017

Let’s go back to 2007. Obviously, Zhelezko’s business partnership with Steinmetz could not be fair and just. An Israeli billionaire does not know how to work like that. Together they create and register DA Vinci Capital. During registration, it immediately became clear that the company’s cable would not be clean. First, they brought the main office to the British Virgin Islands (that is, to an offshore zone), and on its basis they already created a business in Russia.

Data on JSC “Da Vinci Capital Group LTD” (rusprofile.en)

On the basis of an offshore company, 2 enterprises were registered in Russia: Da Vinci Capital LLC and DVK UT LLC. It is noteworthy that the authorized capital of both companies amounted to only 10 thousand rubles – that is, nothing. In fact, Zhelezko and his partner created dummies that lead to nowhere.

Both companies are registered at the same address in the elite Empire Tower business center in the center of Moscow.

“Empire Tower”

In recent years, both Zhelezko companies have shown a constant decline. If in 2019, DA Vinci Capital LLC brought its owners more than 62 million rubles in revenue, then in 2021 the revenue decreased by 2 times. But here with profit the situation is more interesting. Back in 2020, the company went into minus 8.7 million rubles, but already last year brought its owners a profit of 1.3 million rubles. This looks completely illogical. The second company – DVK UT LLC also does not show phenomenal results. The situation in the two Zhelezko enterprises is mirror-like. In “DVK UT” revenue is constantly falling, but profit is growing. If the year before last, with a revenue of 23 million rubles, the company went negative by 9.4 million. That last year the situation changed radically. “DVK UT” reduced revenue to 16 million, but increased profits to a million. Everything is very reminiscent of the classic machinations. Companies are clearly experiencing financial difficulties, but their owner shows an absolutely normal, and even successful, picture that does not correspond to reality.

Revenue and profit of DVK UT (VLSI data)

Oleg Zhelezko has repeatedly stated that his company is a successful player in the financial market, managing assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Where, then, is the revenue and profit? The Zhelezko company has been on the market for 15 years, but there is no development. There are 2 options here: either the businessman is deceiving everyone, and there are no investments worth millions of dollars, or there really are funds, but they bypass the field of view of the tax authorities. If the first option is true, then Oleg Zhelezko is an ordinary fraudster, but if the second judgment is confirmed, it turns out that the financier violated the law by evading taxes.

Probably, realizing the disaster of the situation on the Russian market, the financial institution Zhelezko removed the Russian-language interface from its website. Moreover, it appears that the company has only 3 headquarters: London, the island of Guernsey (the coast of Normandy), Nur-Sultan.

Screenshots from the website “Da Vinci Capital

It is obvious that Oleg Zhelezko is trying by any means to hide his belonging to the Russian Federation. Moreover, he has a British passport, and obviously is not going to return to his homeland. Why, if the funds go offshore, and you can always build a successful investment banker out of yourself, even without being one.