A Colorado couple accused of stealing more than $2 million worth of real estate from a local man, then possibly planning to flee to non-extradition countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, or the African archipelago of Cape Verde, have been named as suspects in his mysterious death.
Earlier this month, police in Longmont, Colorado arrested Savuth Yin, 26, and Yulisa Yin, 24, who are accused of forging deeds to illegally transfer ownership of multiple properties owned by 77-year-old Fred Oelke, a real estate broker whose body was found on Sept. 15 and identified publicly by authorities on Wednesday.
Although cops have not yet revealed any information about the cause and manner of Oelke’s demise, or whether they believe there was foul play involved, bond motions filed in court by the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office and cited by local outlets state that both Yins are suspects “in a death investigation surrounding the suspicious death and attempted cover-up of the death of Fred Oelke.”
According to a Nov. 12 arrest affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, the bizarre series of events began Sept. 14, when a funeral home in Longmont “received several emails and phone calls from someone suggesting they were related or connected to a male who had died in his home.”
The person was insistent that the funeral home “immediately cremate him,” and offered to pay extra for expedited service. Suspicious, the funeral home called police the next day. When cops arrived at Oelke’s residence, they found him dead.
“Fred lives alone therefore it is unknown who was aware Fred was deceased inside and why the person(s) did not call police directly,” the affidavit states.
On Oct. 29, a Longmont police investigator interviewed one of Oelke’s tenants, Laurie Lapinski, who said she had received a number of strange phone calls from someone calling himself “Fredrick Hampton.” Hampton told Lapinski that he was handling all of Oelke’s affairs now that he was deceased, and told Lapinski that she was going to have to move out. After Hampton returned her rental deposit by leaving money orders in her mailbox, Lapinski called the Boulder County Recorder’s Office to find out who actually owned the home she was living in, according to the arrest affidavit.
Lapinski was told that numerous quitclaim deeds—that is, property transfers—had been filed for Oelke’s properties by a “Nathaniel Turner,” and were transferred to an LLC. The investigator contacted the rest of Oelke’s tenants, who all had similar stories about being contacted by Hampton and told to vacate the premises. Lapinski did not respond to a request for comment.
A longtime friend of Oelke’s, Thomas Dunn, told police that Oelke owned seven homes in the area, six of which he rented out. Dunn, who spoke at Oelke’s funeral and was named Oelke’s personal representative by the Boulder County Courts after Oelke’s death, said he had been unable to locate any of the keys to Oelke’s properties or any of the leases. Dunn told investigators that he thought someone had broken into Oelke’s home and stolen the items, in addition to the titles for two of Oelke’s cars.
Detectives obtained copies of the quitclaims, which transferred ownership of Oelke’s properties, all worth several hundred thousand dollars, to Savuth Yin for $0. They had the signatures of Oelke and his ex-wife Karen. But Karen Oelke, who did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment, told police that she hadn’t signed any quitclaims, and that Oelke had bought out her shares in the properties in 2012, when they divorced. The signatures on the quitclaims weren’t hers or Oelke’s, she said. Furthermore, the affidavit says, the signatures had been verified by notaries who didn’t exist, according to the State of Colorado’s licensing database.
Total loss: $2.875 million.
Police followed the money, and found the LLC that now owned the properties had been set up on Oct. 5, nearly three weeks after Oelke’s remains were discovered. The LLC’s setup fees were paid with a MasterCard issued to Nathaniel Turner, and the entity was linked to a Longmont, Colorado cleaning company owned by Yulisa Yin. Detectives recognized Yin as one of Oelke’s renters, and learned that Yulisa Yin had just received her associate-level real estate broker’s license on Sept. 23.
On Nov. 10, police executed a search warrant at the Yins’ home. The pair refused to speak to investigators, who found paperwork inside the house revealing that the Yins—whose cleaning company received more than $14,000 in PPP loans this year—were being sued civilly by Oelke’s estate, along with several firearms hidden in the couch cushions, a handgun with the serial number filed off, the MasterCard used to establish the LLC, and four notary stamps in the name “Samantha Smith,” one of the nonexistent notaries seen in the phony quitclaim deeds.
Cops also found a notebook on the front table, which contained a raft of disturbing entries, according to the affidavit.
A handwritten checklist indicated the Yins intended to get passports, hire an attorney and settle the lawsuit, pay off debts, sell everything, and “leave in 2-3 months.”
A second page was titled, “Asylum,” and listed Cuba, Brazil, Cape Verde Islands, Venezuela, Ecuador, and “Costa Rica (maybe).” Another column with the heading “No to these places” listed three other South American countries which are not identified in the affidavit.
“Due to these comments, I am concerned Yulisa and Savuth plan to leave the country,” concludes the affidavit, which is signed by Officer Rachael Sloan-Stogsdill.
The Yins were arrested and booked into the Boulder County Jail on Nov. 10. Although the DA asked for their bail to be set at $25,000 and for the duo to be put under electronic home monitoring as they posed an “extreme flight risk,” the judge released them on $500 cash bond each.
Oelke’s sister Lynn told The Daily Beast that she and the rest of the family “know nothing more about what happened to my brother then what was reported” in the news, saying that the police have “not given any updates.”
But Thomas Dunn, who recalled Oelke as a “great guy” who enjoyed fast cars and motorcycles, called the terms of the Yins’ release “appalling.”
“Fred was found dead in a [COVID] mask, and he never wore a mask,” Dunn told The Daily Beast, adding that Oelke told another friend right before he died that he was going to meet with some tenants who were behind on their rent. “That’s sort of suspicious right there,” said Dunn, who is wondering no one has been charged with Oelke’s murder.
“When the police first learned about these allegations, they moved quickly and put a lot of hard work into this case,” Shannon Carbone, spokeswoman for the Boulder County DA’s Office told The Daily Beast. “As a result, the District Attorney’s Office filed serious charges regarding the financial crimes. The investigation into the death is ongoing and our team is committed to reaching the right outcome.”
Dunn, who was reluctant to say too much because he doesn’t want to “piss the detectives off,” said Oelke, who drove a Ford Model T roadster in high school and bought a Corvette once he became successful, was well-known around Longmont. A pharmacist by training who grew up on a farm in North Dakota, Oelke started his career in real estate in the 1970s and at one time, employed 30-plus agents, according to Dunn.
“He was an upstanding, top-of-the-line realtor for 40 years,” Dunn said. “He always wore a nice suit, really super, super, super generous, kind guy.”
Some of those suits were later enjoyed by Regan Sample, a neighbor of Oelke’s who also sells real estate. When he was getting started in the business, Oelke was in the twilight of his own career and handed down a portion of his business wardrobe to Sample.
“He and I bonded on building our businesses up in a grassroots way,” Sample told The Daily Beast. “It’s such a sad way for someone’s life to end. This guy who’s done a lot of good in the community, just being left there like that.”
Savuth and Yulisa Yin, who do not have lawyers listed in court records and could not be reached, are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 3.
Vladmir Putin. (Washington Post illustration; Photograph by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
MONACO — The apartment hangs over the blue waters of the Mediterranean beneath the Monte Carlo casino of James Bond legend. In the harbor below, royals, moguls and oligarchs float by in iceberg-size yachts.
There is little about the humble background of Svetlana Krivonogikh to indicate that she had the means to acquire property overlooking this playground for the world’s elite. The Russian woman reportedly grew up in a crowded communal apartment in St. Petersburg, and held jobs that included cleaning a neighborhood shop.
But previously undisclosed financial records combined with local tax documents show that Krivonogikh, 46, became the owner of the apartment in Monaco through an offshore company created just weeks after she gave birth to a girl. The child was born at a time when, according to a Russian media report last year, she was in a secret, years-long relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Krivonogikh’s luxury unit at the Monte Carlo Star is revealed by documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with The Washington Post. The documents, known as the Pandora Papers, expose her ownership of a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, as well as her use of a Monaco financial services firm that simultaneously worked for one of Putin’s billionaire friends.
The files do not indicate where she got the money to pay for an apartment that cost $4.1 million in 2003, and is probably worth far more than that today. But the transaction coincided with a period when Krivonogikh was allegedly in a relationship with Putin and amassing an astonishing portfolio of assets in Russia, according to Proekt, an online Russian investigative outlet that exposed her alleged link to the Kremlin leader and has since been outlawed in Russia.
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A Kremlin spokesman dismissed that report when it was published last year. But details about the apartment bolster its core claim — that after Krivonogikh began her reported relationship with Putin, she accumulated assets often linked to his close associates in some fashion.
Before the Proekt report, Krivonogikh’s ties to Putin’s inner circle had surfaced but not caught public attention. Bank Rossiya disclosed in 2010 that she was one of its biggest shareholders through her company OOO Relax. The St. Petersburg-based bank would later be subject to sanctions by the U.S. Treasury, which labeled it the “personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation.”
Krivonogikh has not spoken about her alleged relationship with Putin or her remarkable accumulation of wealth.
But her daughter, who turned 18 this year and goes by the name Luiza Rozova, has fueled speculation about her paternity in interviews, capitalizing on the attention to build a growing online following. In pictures, Rozova bears a striking resemblance to the Russian president, and she has acknowledged that likeness even while refusing to confirm or deny that Putin is her father.
No father is listed for Rozova on official Russian documents obtained by Proekt and reviewed by The Post. But those documents do record a middle name, “Vladimirovna,” that is a patronymic meaning “daughter of Vladimir.” On her Instagram account, which has more than 83,000 followers, she gives her name as “rozova luiza v.”
Krivonogikh did not respond to requests for comment sent to her through her St. Petersburg-based businesses, Bank Rossiya, her daughter and the Monaco financial services firm. Efforts to reach Krivonogikh at three residential addresses associated with her were not successful.
A Kremlin spokesman did not respond to a request for comment submitted by the ICIJ on behalf of The Post and other partner media organizations in the Pandora project.
The clues connecting Krivonogikh to the Monaco property are contained in the massive new repository of financial materials. The Pandora documents include spreadsheets, memos, invoices and emails obtained from law firms, accounting offices and trust administrators that operate in some of the world’s most permissive financial jurisdictions. The trove contains over 11.9 million documents, more than those exposed five years ago in the Panama Papers, a similar collection of files that triggered scandals and reforms.
Key questions to better understand the offshore system
What is the offshore system?
The offshore financial system offers privacy, which provides an opportunity to hide assets from authorities, creditors and other claimants, as well as from public scrutiny.
Why is it called “offshore” finance?
This system is known as offshore finance because the countries that popularized this method of sheltering wealth were often in island or coastal locations, but today “offshore” signifies anywhere that is not a customer’s country of residence.
Is this legal?
Offshore providers are typically established according to the laws of the country where they are located. But some clients have used offshore services in ways that are not legal.
End of carousel
The records illuminate the hidden financial maneuverings of world leaders, billionaire investors, celebrities, athletes and other elite clients. The cache provides a particularly expansive view of how many of those most loyal to Putin have grown exorbitantly rich and stashed assets abroad, even as the Russian president has disparaged the West and called on Russian elites to keep their capital at home.
The files show, for example, that media executive Konstantin Ernst obtained a stake in a lucrative real estate deal after winning the Russian leader’s praise for helping to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The project involved converting Soviet-era cinema complexes still owned by the state into private shopping and apartment developments. Ernst’s partnership has not been disclosed publicly but is detailed in Pandora documents related to the project.
Media executive Konstantin Ernst, left, with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014. The Pandora Papers show that Ernst obtained a stake in a lucrative real estate deal after the Russian leader praised his work on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. (Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/Shutterstock )
In a written statement, Ernst confirmed his involvement in the real estate venture but denied that it was “compensation for the Olympics 2014.” He did not address other questions submitted by The Post, the ICIJ and other media partners but said, “I haven’t committed any illegal actions.”
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Other documents show that Herman Gref, the head of Russian state-owned Sberbank, held more than $50 million in cash and loan receivables offshore for his family using accounts in Samoa, Panama and Singapore, despite serving as the most prominent public face of Russia’s state banking system.
Singapore authorities flagged transactions involving Gref and two of his Russian colleagues, according to an audit report by the Monetary Authority of Singapore included in the Pandora files, and later fined the financial firm handling Gref’s assets $1.1 million for failing to comply with anti-money-laundering rules. A spokeswoman for Singapore’s monetary authority said the firm paid the fine and has taken remedial actions to address the failures.
Herman Gref, left, the head of Russian state-owned Sberbank, with Putin in 2019. Pandora documents reveal that Gref held over $50 million in offshore accounts despite being the leading public face of Russia’s state banking system. (N/A/Kommersant Photo Agency/Shutterstock)
Gref declined to comment through a Sberbank spokeswoman.
Overall, the materials reinforce the depiction of Russia as a country where an elite close to government power make millions of dollars and safeguard that personal wealth using opaque financial structures overseas.
Five years after the Panama Papers revelations, the new files show that rather than retreat from the use of offshore accounts, wealthy Russians and their money managers have sought to become better at hiding their assets. In one passage, a lawyer who represented two of Putin’s longtime friends warned a Panamanian firm not to repeat the blunders that led to the leak named for that country.
“You are obliged to keep secrecy for our clients,” the lawyer wrote in a 2016 message, “and to not make feasible at all a second Panama Papers story.”
A trail of documents
Those involved in arranging the Monte Carlo purchase for Krivonogikh took measures that ensured that her name and status as owner did not appear on public records.
On April 2, 2003 — almost exactly a month after Krivonogikh’s daughter was born — a shell company called Brockville Development Ltd. was incorporated on the Caribbean island of Tortola, according to records in the Pandora trove. Months later, Monaco property records show, that shell company purchased the apartment in Monaco for 3.6 million euros, about $6 million in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation.
The building is “highly sought-after with the world’s wealthiest,” according to online promotional material from a Monaco real estate firm. The complex’s “light and airy” apartments boast “spacious terraces ideal for al fresco dining or watching some of the world’s most luxurious superyachts sail in and out of world-famous Port Hercules,” the firm writes.
The harbor of Monte Carlo, where a woman who reportedly was in a secret relationship with Putin has a luxury apartment.
A hallway at the Monte Carlo Star in Monaco, where Svetlana Krivonogikh became the owner of a luxury apartment through an offshore company created weeks after she gave birth to a girl in 2003, when she reportedly was in a secret relationship with Putin.
The Pandora files do not show precisely when Krivonogikh became Brockville’s “beneficial owner,” a term that refers to the person who ultimately controls an offshore company or benefits from it financially, even if other names appear on registration documents. They indicate she was the beneficial owner as early as 2006.
Moores Rowland, the Monaco financial services firm that managed the transactions, used shell companies that would have made it difficult for anyone seeking to unravel Krivonogikh’s ownership. Brockville was tucked inside a second shell company called Sefton Securities, which was in turn owned by Eamonn McGregor, a British-born accountant who runs Moores Rowland in Monaco. That is where the public paper trail ends.
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On Jan. 1, 2006, Krivonogikh signed an agreement that made Sefton the declared owner of Brockville, when, in reality, the apartment was hers, according to Pandora records. A 2015 disclosure letter in the Pandora files makes the arrangement explicit, noting that Krivonogikh had authorized a structure in which Sefton “was appointed nominee and trustee for the beneficial owner.”
Moores Rowland’s offices are in the heart of Monte Carlo, a few blocks inland from the famous casino. The firm appears to have transferred control of Brockville to a different Panama-based shell in 2018, but there is no indication in those files or public records that Krivonogikh ever relinquished ownership.
When a Post reporter visited the Monte Carlo Star complex in mid-August, a security official at the building’s entrance said no one named Svetlana Krivonogikh was listed on the directory of residents.
When a Post reporter knocked on the door of the unit identified by local property records as owned by Brockville, a woman who answered said that no one named Svetlana lived at the apartment. She did not resemble photos of Krivonogikh.
No other residents were seen in the hallway or coming and going from the building’s main entrance. The interior appears to date to the 1970s, with brick-colored walls, walnut-paneled doors and geometrically shaped chandeliers dangling above the main staircase.
Monaco tax officials confirmed that Brockville still owns the apartment. If Krivonogikh is renting it out, recent listings indicate she could earn $25,000 or more in monthly income.
Monaco law requires financial firms operating in that jurisdiction to devote special scrutiny to clients considered “politically exposed persons” — those who hold prominent public positions or have close ties to others fitting that description. Moores Rowland did not list Krivonogikh as “politically exposed” in documents included in the Pandora files.
Moores Rowland has business connections to other Russians close to Putin. Among them is Gennady Timchenko, a billionaire oil trader whose friendship with Putin dates to the 1990s in St. Petersburg.
Registration documents and other records in the trove show that Moores Rowland was active on behalf of Timchenko, helping form a company that would become part of his oil-trading empire. Similar documents also show Moores Rowland’s involvement in setting up shell companies whose listed assets included yachts purchased by Timchenko and his daughter.
From left, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, billionaire oil trader Gennady Timchenko and Putin during a hockey game in 2019 in Sochi, Russia. Timchenko has a history being involved in business transactions with people allegedly close to Putin. (Sergei Chirikov)
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Timchenko in 2014, alleging that Putin held investments in his oil-trading venture. Timchenko’s firm denied the allegation, but he has a history of being involved in business transactions with people allegedly close to Putin.
For example, Timchenko sold a luxury riverside apartment in St. Petersburg to the grandmother of a rhythmic gymnast, Alina Kabayeva, alleged to have been romantically involved with Putin, according to a report by Russia’s TV Rain citing Russian property records. Putin in 2008 denied being in a relationship with Kabayeva.
Kabayeva did not respond to a request for comment sent through Russia’s National Media Group, where she serves as chairwoman.
Longtime Putin friend Timchenko reportedly sold a luxury riverside apartment in St. Petersburg to the grandmother of rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, above in black, who is alleged to have had a romantic relationship with the Russian leader. (Sergei Chirikov/EPA/Shutterstock/EPA/Shutterstock)
Timchenko also sold a mansion in Biarritz, France, and a large stake in the Russian oil and petrochemical company Sibur to Putin’s former son-in-law, according to Reuters.
Carter-Ruck, a London law firm representing Timchenko, said that he “has always acted entirely lawfully throughout his career and business dealings.”
In a letter to The Post, a British law firm representing Moores Rowland defended its client but did not provide any comment for publication.
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A portfolio of properties
The Monaco apartment is part of an astonishing portfolio of properties accumulated by Krivonogikh after she allegedly began her relationship with Putin.
She owns a stake in a Russian bank run by Putin associates, according to public records and the Proekt investigation. She owns a majority share of a ski resort where one of two daughters Putin had with his wife was married. She has a yacht, a Swiss bank account also exposed in the Pandora trove, and apartments at St. Petersburg’s most coveted addresses, according to reporting by Proekt and Russian public records.
Before being publicly linked to Putin last year, Krivonogikh displayed the trappings of wealth in profile photos published by Proekt. One picture now in wide circulation shows her wearing a fur and mirrored sunglasses. Another shows her reclining in sleek clothing against a helicopter.
There is no indication that her personal fortune derives from family wealth.
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Two anonymous sources who said they know Krivonogikh told the Russian publication that she had been “close friends” with Putin for years, forging a relationship that began in the 1990s in St. Petersburg, where Putin worked as a senior city official, and continued into the early 2000s in Moscow after he became president. Proekt reported that it had reviewed passenger records showing that Krivonogikh became a frequent airline commuter to the Russian capital as Putin settled into his duties.
Krivonogikh’s professional prospects suddenly brightened, according to details laid out in the Proekt investigation. As early as 2001, she began working at Bank Rossiya. She subsequently acquired a roughly 3 percent stake in the bank, according to bank statements.
Svetlana Krivonogikh, who according to a Russian media report last year had a secret, years-long relationship with Putin starting in the 1990s, began working for Bank Rossiya as early as 2001 and subsequently acquired a roughly 3 percent stake in the bank, records show. (Stas Knop/Shutterstock )
She became owner of an apartment on St. Petersburg’s prestigious Kamenny Island and acquired a stake in a performing arts center in St. Petersburg, according to the Proekt investigation, which cites Russian public records verified by The Post.
Yet another deal gave her a 75 percent stake in a ski resort north of St. Petersburg, which she owns with a friend of Putin who served as Bank Rossiya’s longtime chairman and largest shareholder, according to Russian public records.
The seven chair lifts and diminutive slopes of the Igora resort are no draw for Europe’s elite skiers. But the property has benefited from millions of dollars in investments and expansion since it opened during Putin’s second term as president, and in 2013 it served as the backdrop for the wedding of the younger of Putin’s two daughters with the wife he divorced in 2014.
In one of several deals involving Putin friends, Krivonogikh obtained a 75 percent stake in this ski resort north of St. Petersburg. The resort has benefited from millions of dollars in investments and expansion since it opened during Putin’s first term as president. (Anatoly Maltsev/EPA/Shutterstock/EPA/Shutterstock)
A resemblance to Putin
Putin has guarded details about his private life and personal wealth with the dedication that might be expected of a former KGB officer. Even his two acknowledged daughters shielded their identities from the public by living under aliases.
But the wall of secrecy has seen cracks develop in recent years amid a surge of online disclosures from opposition campaigners, journalists and Internet sleuths. Earlier this year, for example, Putin’s main political adversary, Alexei Navalny, posted an online exposé alleging that a $1 billion palace on the coast of the Black Sea is a secret residence for the Russian leader paid for through proceeds of corruption. Putin denied owning the property.
Russian authorities have responded in recent months with a harsh crackdown on the political opposition and journalists. After the Black Sea investigation was posted online, Navalny was sentenced to 3½ years in prison and his organization was banned by a Russian court.
Russia has since also outlawed Proekt on national security grounds. Its editor fled the country fearing criminal prosecution.
[Trove of secret files details an opaque financial universe where the global elite shield their riches]
Proekt estimated last year that Krivonogikh’s assets in Russia alone were worth 7.7 billion rubles, or about $100 million. The Pandora files provide the first evidence that her holdings have extended beyond Russia’s borders.
Krivonogikh has refused to comment on the allegations of her relationship with Putin and has shunned appearances in public and social media. Her daughter, however, has attracted attention with speculation about her lineage.
In March, Rozova appeared at a Moscow club to play a surprise DJ set in honor of her 18th birthday. She has attracted tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, where the pictures she posts obscure parts of her face but reveal heavy-lidded eyes that resemble those of the Russian leader.
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Her online profile shows the trappings of wealth and that she is familiar with the French Riviera scene surrounding Monaco. During an appearance on the video social-networking platform Clubhouse in February, Rozova noted how she visits the French coastal city Menton each year to attend its Lemon Festival — an event less than 20 minutes from the Monte Carlo property.
Rozova did not respond to requests for comment.
In a February interview with the Russian edition of GQ, she didn’t explain why she stopped using her mother’s surname, Krivonogikh. Nor did she directly address her paternity. She was willing, however, to acknowledge a likeness to Putin.
“Listen, compared to his young photographs, probably, yes, I look like him,” she said. “But, as it turns out, there are many people who look like Vladimir Vladimirovich.”
In an August interview with Srsly.ru, she similarly declined to address the identity of her father, saying the intrigue had already played out and it was “boring to know the truth.” She also declined to say whether she had ever met Putin.
The interviewer asked what she’d say to the Russian president if she ended up in front of him.
“I would probably ask him a question,” Rozova replied.
“Which one?” the interviewer asked.
“Why?”
About this story
The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system. The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which organized the investigation. Read more about this project.
