A well-known banker from Ukraine, with Romanian citizenship, died after falling from the floor in Milan. Investigators are considering it a murder

One of the most famous bankers in Ukraine, Alexander Adarich, with dual citizenship, Romanian and Ukrainian, died after falling from the window of a fourth-floor building in Milan. The Italian authorities are investigating the case as a murder, in the context in which there are suspicions that the man was thrown out of the window after he was already dead, reports the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Alexander Adarich was 54 years old, born in Pavlohrad, near Dnipro, and held dual Ukrainian and Romanian citizenship. In 2006, he was included in the list of the 100 best managers in Ukraine.

The police are investigating a possible murder and trying to reconstruct the victim's movements in Milan, as well as to identify the people who were with him in the apartment where he was staying.

According to investigators, a doorman of the building stated that immediately after Adarich fell from the window, he saw a mysterious man appear in the area, go down to the yard and approach the victim, asking in English “What happened?”, after which he disappeared. Investigators also claim that several people were in the apartment until a few minutes before the incident.

Investigators' hypothesis, although final confirmation is pending autopsy results, is that someone staged a suicide to try to cover up a crime.

Several documents were found in the apartment, with other citizens, but with the photo and identity of the victim. The masterminds either left them there on purpose or forgot to take them.

Investigators have managed to identify the victim's wife, but so far she has not brought any new elements to complete the puzzle. However, Alexander Adarich's route is certain: he arrived in Milan (a city he had never been to before) in the morning and was to leave the same evening. However, the Airbnb apartment does not appear to have been rented (for 22-24) in his name.

The suspicion is that the 54-year-old man was called to a meeting with other people and possibly to conclude a transaction.

For the time being, hypotheses such as drug trafficking or classic “stake” type frauds (selling jewelry or watches in exchange for fake banknotes) are excluded, and the analyzed scenario is considered a much more serious one.

Rapid rise in the Ukrainian banking system

Adarich was the owner of Fidobank from 2012 to 2020, a Ukrainian commercial bank formed after the acquisition of SEB Bank, a subsidiary of a Swedish group, bought by companies affiliated with the 54-year-old. Under his leadership, another large financial group, Erste Bank Ukraine, was later taken over.

Alexander Adarich started his career in 1993 at the PrivatBank branch in Pavlohrad, eventually becoming deputy director of the bank's largest regional branch in Kharkiv. In 2002, he joined UkrSibbank, where he served as chairman of the board from 2002 to 2006, having previously served as vice chairman. Under his leadership, the institution transformed from a regional bank into an important national group, specializing in the bond market.

In the same years (2006), traces of business deals between Alexander Adarich, as CEO of UkrSibbank, and banking giant BNP Paribas appeared online.

Then came the move to “Fidobank”, which led to the “relocation” of its companies to Cyprus. But the trading and investment sector has also experienced setbacks. Among them, the involvement in an alleged embezzlement of 420 million hryvnias (approximately 8 million euros), through the sale of investments with “inflated” bonds. Later, Fidobank was liquidated by the Ukrainian government.

After that, traces of Adarich and his family reappeared in companies registered in Luxembourg and other offshore havens, but also in economic interests in the Odesa port area. What a figure of such caliber was looking for in Milan, possibly to conclude a transaction in a less “institutional” setting, remains a mystery. So is the profile of the victim, his rapid rise to the highest levels and subsequent moves outside of Ukraine, precisely during the most tense years of the war with Russia.