Russian-born billionaire becomes UK’s top taxpayer — RT Business News
Alexander Gerko paid more than $600 million to the British state last year, surpassing gambling mogul Denise Coates
Russian-born billionaire Alexander Gerko became Britain’s top taxpayer last year, according to the Sunday Times tax list published on Friday.
Gerko, 43, has contributed more than £487m ($601m) to Britain’s public finances in just 12 months. This equates to over £1.3million in tax per day, or £55,639 an hour. This is an increase from the £117.4m he paid the previous year, when he finished in tenth place.
In taking the top spot on the list of the UK’s 100 biggest taxpayers, Gerko edged out the head of UK gambling empire Bet365, Denise Coates, who paid £460.2 million ($569 million ) in taxes last year. Owner of sports and fashion brands Speedo, Kickers and Berghaus, Stephen Rubin, who paid £392.3million ($485million) in tax, was in third place.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Sting are also among the UK’s biggest taxpayers.
Gerko was born in Moscow and earned a doctorate in mathematics from Moscow State University. He started his career in equity trading at Deutsche Bank AG and later moved into foreign exchange.
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He has been a British citizen since 2016 and recently renounced his Russian citizenship. In 2015, Gerko founded London-based trading company XTX Markets and owns 75% of the business. XTX manages nearly $300 billion in daily volume across stocks, commodities, currencies and fixed income, according to Bloomberg.
Gerko is estimated to have a fortune of $6.4 billion from his majority stake in the company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The company, whose year-on-year profits in 2021 rose 42% to £667m, is expanding and has offices in New York, Paris, Singapore, Mumbai and Yerevan, Armenia.
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