Biography
Alexander Smolensky began his business activities on the black market of the so-called "shadow economy". His private ventures included trading foreign currency, moonlighting on a second job in a bakery with a counterfeit permit as well as typesetting and printing Bibles using government presses and ink. He was arrested by the KGB in 1981 and charged with economic crimes. Subsequently, he was sentenced to two years of hard labour although he only served one day. Alexander Smolensky is considered the first private banker of Russia. Alexander Smolensky is the founder and president of one of the largest private banks in Russia - Bank Stolichny. In 1992, he set up the country's first debit card processing system. In 1998, he merged his agribusiness assets in Agroprombank (acquired in 1996), which was renamed SBS-Agro and gave the businessman a tremendous influence at the Kremlin. SBS-Agro collapsed in the 1998 Russian financial crisis wiping out its investors' savings. When asked what he owed his investors he replied: "dead donkey ears". He also declared that his banking activities had not went bankrupt, but solely split into several structures spread throughout the country and managed by an advanced computer system. In 1999, Russian prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest including charges of embezzlement and money laundering. This warrant, however, was later dropped. Smolensky's net worth in 2003 was estimated to be 230 millionSee also
*References
Books
* David E. Hoffman. '' The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia'', Public Affairs (2003) 1954 births Living people Russian newspaper publishers (people) Businesspeople from Moscow Russian bankers Soviet bankers Russian billionaires Russian people of Jewish descent Russian oligarchs {{Russia-business-bio-stub