WAGNER Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has reportedly been killed in a fireball private jet crash.
The 62-year-old will be remembered as a wealthy warlord as he amassed millions of dollars during his time as Putin's declared enemy.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, killed in a plane crash, amassed a million-dollar net worth Credit: AP Who was Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Yevgeny Prigozhin was the leader of the Wagner Group and was at the forefront of their involvement in the war on Ukraine.
He was a close confidant of Putin but became his greatest enemy when he launched an alleged coup in June 2023.
In the past, Prigozhin was often referred to as "Putin's chef" as he owned a number of restaurants and catering companies that provided services for the Kremlin.
Insiders have painted a merciless picture of the late Wagner boss.
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Numerous people who have known Prigozhin described him as a " ruthless schemer" who was obsequious to social superiors and often tyrannical to underlings as he rose to the top.
“He’s driven and talented, and won’t shrink from anything to get what he wants,” a businessman who knew the oligarch in the 1990s told The Guardian.
“It seems like he gets off from the process itself, not just the end result,” added the former defence official.
How did Yevgeny Prigozhin rise to prominence in Russia?
Prigozhin's ruthless rise to the top began in 1981 in a courtroom in Leningrad, now-St Petersburg.
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Old criminal documents, obtained by the Russian news publication, Meduza, in 2021, revealed that Prigozhin was charged with robbery and assault and sent to the penal colonies of Soviet Russia.
As communism collapsed, he was freed after serving nine years. Hardened and opportunistic, he began flogging hot dogs on the streets of a crumbling St Petersburg.
This venture led to him opening a convenience store and eventually a chain of restaurants, whilst he dipped his hands in the organised crime ravaging the city.
By 1996, Prigozhin was running a hugely successful restaurant business that one fateful day Putin would dine at – earning the nickname “Putin’s chef”.
Soon after meeting President Putin in 2001, Prigozhin’s catering company began receiving lucrative state contracts to feed Russia’s schools and military.
It would turn out to be a billion-ruble friendship – one of the many perks of proximity to Putin.
What was Yevgeny Prigozhin's net worth?
The late warlord was is estimated to be a billionaire with a huge yacht, and a private plane, among other luxuries - with a net worth of over ￡1 billion.
In June, Putin announced that in the last year alone Prigozhin and Wagner Group had raked in ￡1.6billion worth of contracts from the Russian state.
He also reportedly capitalised on other nations’ natural resources and backing unstable regimes.
An investigation from the Financial Times found how the Wagner Group offered security services to scores of weak and war-torn African and Middle Eastern countries.
Companies allegedly linked to Prigozhin generated $250 million from natural resources in those nations in the four years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the report claims.
It is understood Wagner Group plunders diamonds, gold, oil, and gas from countries in which they operate - as well as being paid directly by crooked regimes.
And on top of his other businesses, this has inflated Prigozhin's wealth to extraordinary levels - with some estimates putting his personal fortune as much as ￡2 billion.
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In July, Prigozhin's swanky mansion was raided by Russian police as extraordinary pictures were released showing his gold bars, guns and even framed photos of severed heads.
The raid also seized his bizarre disguise kit, with a photo showing a cupboard full of wigs and pictures of him in various get ups - the discovery made only weeks after his failed armed revolt against the Kremlin.