One of the individuals arrested on suspicion of leaking the data of over 690,000 Albanian citizens and residents, works for a company owned by Russian billionaire Oleg Viktorovich Boyko.
On Friday, Tirana prosecutor’s announced they had arrested four people, two state employees and two working with private companies, in connection with the leaks that saw the personal data made public and shared widely on WhatsApp.
According to a US Senate intelligence report, Boyko is described as a person “with disturbing links to the Russian government, Russia’s intelligence and security services, and links to organised crime.”
He owns Finstar Financial Group, has funds of over $1.3 billion, and is one of Russia’s richest businessmen. He also owns Credit 2 All, a company that one of the suspects works for which allegedly specialises in “financial consulting and electronic products”.
In addition, US intelligence noted that, “the Moldovan press has reported that Boyko was involved in a Kremlin-backed operation to externally influence the election there.”
Further investigations in Romania allege that Boyko, together with a partner in Latvia, used Malta as a tax haven to operate in Europe and the US, while earning significant amounts of money.
Boyko describes Finstar’s mission as a vanguard in “using deep technology and data science to ensure global financial inclusion”.
