Yevgeny Prigozhin is one of the most mysterious people in the world. Looking into his finances shows a story of wealth that has caused both intrigue and controversy. As a well-known Russian businessman and entrepreneur, Prigozhin’s net worth shows how many different businesses he has run, such as catering, media, and military operations.
Prigozhin has ties to the Russian government and is well-known around the world. His net worth shows how business, politics, and power are intertwined on a global scale.
Yevgeny Prigozhin Net Worth
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s empire, worth an estimated $1 billion, wasn’t entirely based on conventional industries. He had built up a sizable collection of expensive possessions in addition to his business interests, such as a sizable yacht and a high-end private plane. He purportedly profited from the natural wealth of other countries and supported unstable regimes.
Numerous fragile and war-torn African and Middle Eastern nations were served by the Wagner Group’s security services, according to a Financial Times investigation.
In the four years prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, firms purportedly associated with Prigozhin reportedly made $250 million from the natural resources in those countries, according to the report.
It is believed that Wagner Group receives direct payment from corrupt regimes in addition to stealing diamonds, gold, oil, and gas from the nations where they do business.
Yevgeny Prigozhin Biography
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and the head of the Wagner private military organization, lived from 1 June 1961 to 23 August 2023. Up until June 2023, he was a trusted confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin operated eateries and catering companies that catered to the Kremlin, earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” According to a 2022 investigation, Prigozhin, a former Soviet prisoner, oversaw a network of significant businesses whose operations were “tightly integrated with Russia’s Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU.”
According to reports, Prigozhin established the Wagner Group in 2014 to aid pro-Russian paramilitaries in Ukraine. It was supported by Russian interests in Syria and Africa and was funded by the Russian government, which also played a crucial role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin confirmed that his companies had meddled in American electoral processes in November 2022. He acknowledged in February 2023 that he was the Internet Research Agency’s founder and longtime manager, a Russian business charged with waging internet disinformation and propaganda campaigns.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin Cause of Death
The emergency ministry of Russia reports that Prigozhin passed away in a plane accident on August 23, 2023. When the jet crashed, it was travelling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, killing all 10 people on board.
According to TASS, a state-run media outlet in Russia, Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the flight. The press secretary for Prigozhin declined to confirm that he was on the aircraft.
However, a Telegram account connected to Wagner claimed the plane was downed over Tver Oblast by Russian air defences. This claim was disputed because there were no discernible missile tracks in the video that was made public.
In numerous locations, impromptu tributes for Prigozhin and Utkin were created using candles, flowers, Wagner flags, and sledgehammers—a nod to the execution technique Wagner employed for deserters. In front of a memorial, videos of Wagner troops sobbing went viral.
Yevgeny Prigozhin Personal Life
Prigozhin was wed to businesswoman and chemist Lyubov Valentinovna Prigozhina. In Saint Petersburg, she is the owner of a chain of quaint shops known as the Chocolate Museum. She opened the Crystal Spa & Lounge in 2012; it is a day spa on Zhukovsky Street in Saint Petersburg and earned third place for the Perfect Urban Day Spa in 2013.
She is the proprietor of a spa in the Leningrad region as well as the Crystal Spa & Residence, a boutique hotel that received the Perfect Spa Project award in 2013. In Lakhta Park, Sestroretsk, Kurortny District, Saint Petersburg, she is the owner of the New Technologies SPA LLC, which is situated at plot 1 of Granichnaya Street. She also owns Agat, a company in the Concord group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin Career
Prigozhin started selling hot dogs at the Apraksin Dvor outdoor market in Leningrad with his mother and stepfather after being released from jail in 1990.
According to a New York Times interview with him, “the rubles were piling up faster than his mother could count them” soon. Prigozhin adopted the entrepreneurial mindset of the moment after the Soviet Union fell apart and started or joined numerous new firms.
Prigozhin was actively involved in the grocery store industry from 1991 until 1997. In contrast, the first grocery shop chain in Saint Petersburg created by his former classmate Boris Spektor, hired him as manager and a 15% shareholder.
At about the same time, Prigozhin entered the gambling industry. Prigozhin was appointed CEO of Spectrum CJSC, which established the first casinos in Saint Petersburg, by Spektor and Igor Gorbenko.
Together, these three went on to start numerous additional enterprises throughout the 1990s in a variety of sectors, including construction, market research, and international trade.
Given that Putin had been head of the board of supervisors for casinos and gambling since 1991, Novaya Gazeta speculates that this was maybe the first time Prigozhin and Putin had interacted.