Anti-Putin businessman found dead after ‘jumping’ from DC apartment building with $2,600 cash
The anti-Putin, Latvian-American businessman found dead in Washington DC this week was discovered in the street outside the apartment building where he lived after falling to his death, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Dan Rapoport, 52, was found outside 2400 Main Street apartments on August 14th shortly before 6pm.
His body was discovered in the street along with his cracked cellphone, $2,620 cash, a keyring with a lanyard and a cracked white headphone.
Russian media reported that he was found dead from an apparent suicide after setting his dog free in a nearby park.
DC Metropolitan police also told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that they do not suspect foul play.
But his widow Alena denied that he took his own life, insisting to Russian newswire: ‘There were no notes, no suicide.’
Dan Rapoport was found dead outside the apartment building in DC where police say he was living. He fell to his death on August 14th
The eight-floor apartment building that Rapoport jumped to his death from, according to police
These are the items found on Rapaport or near his body on August 14, DailyMail.com can reveal
Rapoport had been asking friends to support him in his criticism of an unknown Russian VC firm which he said had ripped him off in the months before he died
In the months before his death, Rapoport had been complaining to friends that he was being ripped off by a Russian investment firm.
Rapoport’s widow Alena says he did not kill himself, despite reports he left a suicide note
In a message to a friend on Facebook, he wrote: ‘I need a small favor. I just posted on FB about a Russian VC firm trying to screw me for $10k.
‘I would really appreciate if you could like and/or comment on it. I don’t expect to get paid, but I want to maximize their public embarrassment.’ The message was in April.
It’s unclear what came of his personal gripe with the fund, or who they are.
The list of items discovered on or near his body after he died begs more questions.
It includes not just the phone, keyring, headphone and cash, but also a pair of glasses, an unspecified piece of metal, orange flip flops, a black hat and a Florida’s driver’s license.
Rapoport was outspoken in his criticism of Putin and the war in Ukraine, where his wife is from and where he had been living until the conflict broke out.
He evacuated his wife and planned to bring them to the US.
Russian media claims that Mr Rapoport killed himself and left behind a note, but wife Alena disputes that and says an investigation is currently underway
Mr Rapoport lived in Washington DC from 2012 – when he returned from Russia – until 2016 when he moved to Kyiv and sold his house to Ivanka and Jared Trump (pictured outside)
Records show the house, in the upmarket Kalorama district, was sold for $5.5million in December 2016, shortly after Donald Trump was elected
Mr Rapoport lived in DC between 2012 – when he arrived from Russia amid protests again Putin – and 2016, when he moved to Kyiv and sold his house to Ivanka and Jared Trump following Donald Trump’s election win.
It was in Kyiv that Mr Rapoport met and married Alena – his second wife – and had a daughter with her.
News of Mr Rapoport’s passing first broke Tuesday on the Telegram channel of Yuniya Pugacheva, the former editor of Russian Tatler.
Pugacheva said the financial executive had ‘committed suicide in Washington DC’ before giving details about the dog and the suicide note.
She also claimed to have seen Mr Rapoport back in May at London’s swanky Connaught Bar, alleging that he was there ‘in the company of young girls’.
‘They say that his wife left him,’ she added.
But, speaking to Russian newswire RBC, Alena disputed the majority of that account.
She did confirm his death, telling the site: ‘To our great regret, the husband and father of our daughter is no more.’
Alena did not say when exactly her husband had died or provide an alternative cause of death, but said investigations are being carried out.
‘We were due to meet, he had appointments and plans. Dan evacuated us from Kyiv and returned there to help my country. Next we were supposed to meet in the USA.’
Aside from his support for Navalny – who is currently jailed in Russia and was moved to solitary confinement in recent days – Mr Rapoport was staunchly pro-Ukrainian.
In 2018, investigative website Bellingcat outed him as the man behind ‘David Jewberg’ – a ‘Pentagon analyst’ and expert on Ukraine-Russia relations who was frequently quoted by the media in both countries.
Typical ‘Jewberg’ posts slammed Putin, criticised the war in Ukraine he began in 2014, and lobbied the US to take a tougher stance against him.
In fact, ‘Jewberg’ turned out to be fictitious with the account actually run by Mr Rapoport with support from a circle of friends.
In 2017, Sergei Tkachenko – a business partner of Mr Rapoport who co-owned his Moscow nightclub – also died suddenly, and was reported to have killed himself.
Mr Rapoport was born in Latvia when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to America with his family in 1980 after they were given political asylum.
Mr Rapoport was a critic of Putin (left) and supported arch-nemesis Alexei Navalny (right, in jail) and it is thought he left Russia due to his political activities
Mr Rapoport was also exposed as the man behind ‘David Jewberg’, an anti-Russia ‘Pentagon official’ who turned out to be a false persona (pictured, an image used to create the persona)
He graduated from the University of Houston in 1991 – the same year the Union fell apart – and then returned to Russia to work in finance and banking.
Mr Rapoport became a well-known face in post-Soviet Moscow thanks to his ownership of the popular nightclub Soho Rooms.
But around 2011 he became involved in opposition politics amid a wave of protests against what were widely believed to be fraudulent elections.
He returned to the US in 2012 with wife Irina – a former model – and their two children, and remained in the city until 2016.
Following divorce from his first wife, he sold his house to the Trumps for $5.5million in December of that year and departed for Kyiv where he set up another investment firm and again got involved in politics.
Mr Rapoport relocated his family outside of the country, according to Alena, and was spending time in the US while trying to get them brought over.
It is not clear whether he was permanently based in the US at that time.
