Igor Olenicoff was born on 1942 and is an American billionaire and real estate developer.
20 Facts About Igor Olenicoff
1.
2.
The IRS contended that Igor Olenicoff was the sole owner of Olen and used Bahamas-domiciled Sovereign Bancorp Ltd.
3.
Igor Olenicoff denied he owned Sovereign, claiming that it was a Russian parastatal investment vehicle established by Boris Yeltsin, and that it had merely lent money to Olen.
4.
In 2022, Igor Olenicoff sued Newport Beach to block a competing real estate developer from building an apartment complex near John Wayne Airport.
5.
Igor Olenicoff used California Environmental Quality Act to argue that the environmental impact of the development had not been assessed.
6.
Igor Olenicoff was ensnared in the UBS scandal, in which the Swiss private bank was revealed to have helped American citizens evade billions of dollars in taxes owed to the US government.
7.
Igor Olenicoff was recruited to UBS from Barclays Bank by Brad Birkenfeld, who subsequently blew the whistle on UBS's abetting of tax evasion by wealthy Americans.
8.
Igor Olenicoff became a client of UBS in 2001, and transferred $200 million to the bank using credit cards supplied by Birkenfeld.
9.
In December 2007, Igor Olenicoff pleaded guilty to a single felony count of filing a false tax return for 2002.
10.
Igor Olenicoff admitted to tax evasion and of misleading the IRS about his offshore accounts in the Bahamas, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
11.
The US probation officer recommended that Igor Olenicoff receive a sentence of one year on probation, while the prosecutor's memorandum recommended probation for three years.
12.
Igor Olenicoff sentenced him to two years probation and 120 hours of community service.
13.
Igor Olenicoff filed a lawsuit against UBS and Birkenfeld in 2008, seeking up to $1.7 billion in damages.
14.
Igor Olenicoff said the works, which were part of a Percent for Art scheme to promote public art, were the work of Chinese sculptor Zhou Hong.
15.
In 2011, Igor Olenicoff claimed that the sculpture and three others like it that were on display at other Olen sites had been bought in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games.
16.
Igor Olenicoff said he had one of the sculptures modified with the addition of a stainless steel form representing a teardrop.
17.
Igor Olenicoff is being sued by sculptor John Raimondi, who was contacted by the real estate tycoon to create versions of two of his extant sculptures as part of a percent-for-art mandate.
18.
Igor Olenicoff has filed a motion that the damages in the Wakefield case be set aside.
19.
The lawyers cited Igor Olenicoff for getting off without a jail sentence when he was sentenced for tax evasion via offshore accounts.
20.
Igor Olenicoff, who got two years probation and community service, pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return, a felony.