Oleg Burlakov: who will get the inheritance?
Oleg Burlakov / Photo: Wikipedia
The Russian oligarch left some £3 billion when he passed away.
Who should inherit Russian oligarch Oleg Burlakov’s estate? Since his death in 2021, after contracting COVID-19, there has been a veritable legal battle, worldwide, to determine who should inherit the three billion pounds sterling (just over 3 billion euros) left by Oleg Burlakov.
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To get the answer, we need to go back in time.
Oleg Burlakov: businessman and man of science
Born in 1949 in St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Oleg Leonidovich Burlakov entered the military aviation engineering college in Kiev before becoming an officer in the Soviet air force in 1972. He spent much of his time on scientific research and even joined the Joukovski Air Force Engineering Academy, one of the finest and oldest aeronautical schools in the world.
He also wrote over 30 scientific publications and was the author of five inventions, earning the title “Honoured Inventor of the USSR”.
However, Oleg Burlakov was not only a science enthusiast: he was also a businessman, and created Integral, a cooperative scientific manufacturing organisation that was responsible for developing fuel systems for the Soviet military industry and parts for spacecraft. Working alongside him was Nikolai Ivanovich Kazakov, an engineer and entrepreneur, and Oleg Burlakov’s sister’s husband. The company was a success: in fact, it became one of the largest firms in the industry in the 1990s.
At that time Oleg Burlakov also launched a Franco-Russian joint venture specialising in oil. A starting point for Oleg Burlakov, who continued his entrepreneurial creations and acquisitions in different sectors, including cement production, real estate and banking.
Oleg Burlakov gradually built up his fortune and ended up, in 2021, in 177th place in the Russian Forbes magazine list, with 3 billion pounds sterling. The businessman died that year after contracting COVID-19.
His life in Monaco
Oleg Burlakov lived part of his life in the Principality, where he settled in 2006, as our colleagues at Monaco-Matin remind us. The oligarch owned a 300 m2 penthouse in the Larvotto district and a fabulous 106-metre long superyacht, the Black Pearl, estimated at $200 million.
And it was in Monaco in 2018 that his wife, Lyudmila Burlakova, who he had met at the military aviation college in Kiev, filed for divorce after 48 years and two daughters together: Elena and Veronika.
It was a highly contentious separation. The businessman is said to have suspected Lyudmila of stealing money from him and to have filed a criminal complaint against her in Monaco.
In a statement sent to Monaco Tribune by the representatives of Lyudmila Burlakova, she denies embezzlement of family funds and insists that the funds in question belonged to her. The dispute also seems to have extended to the couple’s daughters , who are said to have stopped communicating with their father. In the end, Oleg Burlakov died two weeks before the divorce was due to be officially finalised. And so, what will happen to his estate?
Which one is the right will?
On the one hand, there is Lyudmila Burlakova and her daughters. On the other, Vera and Nikolai Kazakov, the deceased’s sister and associate respectively. They are all adamant that Oleg Burlakov’s estate should rightfully come to them.
His widow claims that the divorce was not pronounced, and that she helped her husband build his empire during the 48 years they were together. His business partner believes that their very long professional relationship also gives him an entitlement.
There is a third person in the equation, Sofia Chevtsova, with whom Oleg Burlakov had a daughter. The child’s mother is also claiming a share on behalf of her daughter.
In fact, it was in their house in Riga, Latvia, that Monaco-Matin reports a manuscript will to have been found. The document allegedly dates from 2019 and is said to state that Oleg Burlakov bequeathed his fortune to his sister Vera, or more specifically to her foundation, and to Nikolai Kazakov. This will bears no mention of Lyudmila Burlakova or her daughters, whereas Oleg allegedly asks his sister and brother-in-law to look after his illegitimate third daughter.
However, according to Lyudmila Burlakova, the famous foundation “did not exist at the time the will is supposed to have been written,” reports Monaco-Matin. Oleg Burlakov’s widow therefore formally contests the document’s authenticity, and counters with a will drawn up before a notary.
Ms. Burlakova insists that the 2004 will is the true will and that the other wills are contested.
Legal proceedings in several countries
The matter may therefore take some time to resolve, and not just because of the complexity of the case itself. There is also an international dimension, and for now it is difficult to determine with certainty which court has jurisdiction to settle the dispute.
Is it the High Court in Great Britain, where a case is being brought to prove that Oleg Burlakov and Nikolai Kazakov were not business partners? Or the Monaco Court of Appeal which, according to Monaco-Matin, should have ruled on its jurisdiction last October only to decide to reopen the proceedings and therefore postpone its decision ? Or even a court in Latvia, where Sofia Chevtsova hails from?
The issue is all the more delicate given that legal proceedings have also been undertaken in Panama, where Oleg and Nikolai Kazakov had some business dealings, and where Veronika and Lyudmila have tried unsuccessfully to take over a number of companies. They also tried to take ownership of the Black Pearl through the Court of Montenegro, again without success. The dispute between the different potential heirs even extends to the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland and Cyprus.
According to a spokesperson for the Burlakov family, whose comments were reported by Monaco-Matin, this additional delay in determining the Monaco Court of Appeal’s jurisdiction is “a good thing” because it “will allow the court to examine the parties’ arguments in greater detail.” According to the same source, the family “will continue to take all necessary measures to assert its rights as Mr. Burlakov’s true heirs and to expose the fraudulent actions of Vera and Nikolai Kazakov, including in the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Article amended on 9 December 2023