Oleg Tinkov, former owner of the Word Tour cycling team and founder of Tinkoff Bank, was convicted of fraud in the United States. The Russian was sentenced to a huge fine of $500 million and a suspended one-year prison sentence. This huge fine is double the amount Tinkoff was willing to pay. Last year, the former owner of the Tinkoff Saxo cycling team, which includes Peter Sagan and Alberto Contador, posted £20 million bail to avoid jail time while in custody after a provisional arrest warrant was issued by US prosecutors.

Tinkoff is said to be worth £2.2 billion after setting up and selling a series of businesses, including electronics, pasta, beer, and most recently a banking division. The online Tinkoff Bank now has about 8 million customers in Russia, and Tinkoff has listed the bank on the British stock market.

In 2019, he was indicted for concealing large stock market profits. U.S. citizens are required to report their income and pay taxes, even if they live and work outside the United States. Tinkoff has been a U.S. citizen since the 1990s. He was arrested in 2020 and the U.S. attempted to extradite him, but he objected on medical grounds and posted bail.

According to documents released Friday, Tinkoff was "convicted of a felony charge of filing a false tax return and sentenced today." "As required by his plea agreement, prior to sentencing, Oleg Tinkoff, aka Oleg Tinkoff, renounced his U.S. citizenship and more than doubled the amount he was trying to avoid paying to the U.S. Treasury through a scheme to hide from the IRS large stock profits he knew he was required to report, $508,. paid $936,184. This includes $248,525,339 in taxes, statutory interest on those taxes, and approximately $100 million in fraud penalties. Tinkoff was also fined $250,000, the maximum amount allowed by statute, and sentenced to prison time and one year of supervised release." "Tinkoff had been told by both the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and his U.S.-based accountant about his filing and tax obligations. When his accountant asked him if his net worth was over $2 million to fill out an application for deportation, Tinkoff lied and said he had no assets over $2 million. Later, when his accountant asked him if his net worth was less than $2 million, instead of answering the question, Tinkoff falsely reported that his net worth was only $300,000 and filled out his own expatriation form.On February 26, 2014, Tinkoff filed his 2013 individual tax return and reported income of falsely reported income of $205,317. In addition, Tinkoff did not report any gain from the hypothetical sale of more than $1.1 billion in assets and did not pay any applicable taxes as required by law. In total, Tinkoff caused a tax loss of $248,525,339, which, along with other tax liabilities for the year, was paid in full, with significant fines and interest as part of the penalty sought." More to follow...