Dodo founder Igor Gilenko a fugitive in Russia over bank fraud charges

A founder of Australian internet giant Dodo is a fugitive believed to be hiding in Russia.

Dodo co-founder Igor Gilenko, an avid diver, is wanted by Ukraine over fraud allegations after one of his Melbourne companies was named in a US indictment.

A founder of Australian internet provider Dodo is a fugitive ­believed to be hiding in Russia, with Ukrainian authorities ­accusing him of large-scale bank fraud.

The Australian can also reveal that one of his Melbourne companies was repeatedly named by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in charges against the world’s most powerful Russian gangster, Semion Mogilevich.

Igor Gilenko, a one-time member of the BRW’s Young Rich List, once had current Fairfax chief Greg Hywood and Labor stalwart Michael Danby un­successfully lobbying to secure citizenship for him after living in Australia for more than seven years.

Criminal investigations in two countries, however, link his other companies to dark and powerful forces.

Mr Gilenko, 50, is accused by Ukrainian authorities of defrauding the country’s central bank, alongside a gas oligarch wanted by the US on charges of foreign bribery.

The six-year-old fraud investigation in Kiev stems from the collapse of major bank Nadra, of which Mr Gilenko was chairman and chief executive while helping to set up Dodo in Melbourne.

Nadra collapsed despite ­receiving $560 million in bailouts from Ukraine’s central bank, with much of the money allegedly disappearing and accusations that Mr Gilenko worked with officials from notorious Latvian bank ­Trasta Komercbanka to defraud his own institution.

Billionaire gas oligarch Dmytro Firtash bought Nadra at a fraction of its pre-global financial crisis worth after Mr Gilenko quit his posts. Mr Firtash is a suspect in the same investigation.

“Nadra collapsed at autumn 2009 when Gilenko was the CEO. The investigation period includes 2008-14,” a senior Ukrainian ­government source told The ­Australian. “Unfortun­ately, police investigators have no access to both (men).”

The arrest warrant came six years after a company Mr Gilenko set up in 1993, Australian Fin­ance Structure Pty Ltd, was named in the 2003 indictment of the Ukrainian-born Mogilevich, who until December was on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted fugitives list. Mogilevich, nicknamed the “Brainy Don”, has been linked to everything from the natural gas trade to arms dealing and drug trafficking, although the US ­indictment charges him only with stock fraud, money laundering and racketeering offences.

According to the indictment against him, two Mogilevich associates in the alleged stock fraud were twice caught on phone taps discussing a Latvian bank account in the name of “Australian ­Finance Structure”. They then ­allegedly transferred $US1.8m — the equivalent of $3.6m today — to the account on June 30, 1998.

Mr Gilenko was not named in the indictment, but at the time he was the director and the largest shareholder of Australian Fin­ance Structure. An associate of Mr Gil­enko who worked at Nadra, Vadim Piatov, and a Russian named Leonid Sergeev were the other major shareholders, but ­neither sat on the board.

Three years after the funds transfer to Latvia, Mr Gilenko ­became a key investor in Dodo.

He is said to have invested $2.5m in Dodo in the early 2000s, with his stepson becoming a founding director of the company alongside Larry Kestelman and Michael Slepoy.

Dodo was sold for $203m in 2013, but it is understood that Mr Gilenko had given up his stake several years earlier.

He had also made an unsuccessful bid for Australian citizenship, receiving the backing of Mr Hywood, then a senior bureaucrat in the Victorian government, and Labor stalwart Mr Danby.

“He has poured $2.5m into the company but is denied citizenship because the inter­national travel associated with his work keeps him out of the country much of the time. The minister could make an exception, but won’t,” Mr ­Hywood wrote in The Age in 2005.

Mr Hywood last week told The Australian: “An elected federal representative asked me to consider the case of one of his constituents and the broader implications of the way Australia attracts and retains skilled immigrants,” he said.

“The broader discussion of ­attracting skilled immigrants is as relevant today as in 2005. Given the case is a matter of legal interest, it would be inappropriate of me to comment further.”

Mr Danby said he knew nothing about Mr Gilenko’s activities since 2004.

“Our records show that in 2004 Igor Gilenko fulfilled the legal ­requirements of Australian citizenship and was a senior executive with Dodo, the reputable and still very active local telco service,” he said.