On July 22, businessman and CEO of "IKS Holding," Anton Cherepennikov, passed away at the age of 40 in Moscow. The initial cause of death is reported to be a heart attack, RBC reports.
Cherepennikov was recognized as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in Russia on different occasions. In February 2023, he was added to the US blacklist, and later, he faced sanctions from Ukraine.
In 2003, Cherepennikov founded the e-sports company Virtus.pro, initially focused on a Counter-Strike team, which expanded to include other games. In collaboration with Aleksandr Kokhanovsky, owner of NAVI club at that time, Cherepennikov established the ESforce eSports holding in 2015, which incorporated the Virtus.pro club. The billionaire Alisher Usmanov invested $100mn in the Virtus Pro eSports team, and Mail.ru Group, largely owned by Usmanov structures, eventually purchased the business for $100mn.
Cherepennikov's business endeavors often involved Alisher Usmanov, with assets bought or sold between them. In 2019, Cherepennikov expressed fatigue with being constantly labeled as "Usmanov's e-sports partner" despite his pride in the association.
In addition to the e-sports business, Cherepennikov established the holding company "Citadel," which included CORM companies. One of the initial acquisitions was MFI Soft, the largest CORM supplier, with funds provided as a loan from the USM Group (owned by Alisher Usmanov). Later, Cherepennikov re-registered this loan with Sberbank, seeking greater independence from Usmanov.
Cherepennikov continued to collaborate closely with Usmanov structures. In 2018, Usmanov's MegaFon operator tested data collection and storage systems within the framework of the "Yarovaya Law" developed by "Citadel." Sergey Soldatenkov, one of Usmanov's top managers, also joined MegaFon's board of directors.
In 2020-2021, USM Telecom owned IKS Holding, with 80% belonging to Alisher Usmonov's USM Group. In early 2022, USM sold IKS Holding to Anton Cherepennikov, with the deal amount undisclosed.
Cherepennikov's connections to Putin's elite have attracted attention. The British publication Daily Mirror, citing a Russian opposition source, suggests that Cherepennikov was perceived as a tool for Putin's repressions, which led to him being previously sanctioned by the US. The circumstances of his death and that of another representative of Putin's elite, Igor Kudryakov, who was found dead in his Moscow apartment, raise suspicions, according to the source.
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