(Washington) Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov, founder of online banking Tinkoff, has paid more than $ 500 million after being convicted of tax evasion in the United States, the US Department of Justice said on Friday.
Mr. Tinkov, who pleaded guilty on 1er October, was sentenced to one year on probation and paid $ 508,936,184, a sum that includes taxes and their interest, penalties and a fixed fine.
He was charged in September 2019 with evading the American tax authorities (IRS) by hiding large stock market capital gains from the authorities while he renounced his American nationality.
U.S. citizens must report and pay income tax to the IRS even if they live and work outside of the United States.
He was arrested in February 2020 in London. The British authorities had refused to extradite him to the United States, however, because he suffered from a severe form of leukemia.
Born in Russia, 53-year-old Oleg Tinkov obtained US citizenship in 1996.
He had founded in 2006 the Tinkoff bank, of which he indirectly held the majority of the shares, according to the US department.
Listed in London, it raised $ 1.1 billion when it went public in 2013.
Mr. Tinkov had then made 192 million dollars by selling part of his shares. Then he had started the process to renounce his citizenship.
He then made a false tax return for 2013, citing income of just $ 205,317, when his assets were estimated at at least $ 1.1 billion.
The fight against tax evasion is one of the priorities of the government of Joe Biden, which wants to use the funds collected to finance its major economic and social reforms.