His life was no less mysterious than death: what do we know about Russian businessman Dan Rapoport who died in Washington

Recently, the famous American, Ukrainian and Russian businessman and investor Dan Rapoport was found dead in Washington (District of Columbia). According to the preliminary version, he crashed to death after falling out of the window of an apartment building. Although the version of suicide is not believed not only by the wife, but also by most people. I happened to be personally acquainted with Dan - a man whose life was no less mysterious than death.

Photo: Ksenia Kirrilova

The entrepreneur lived in the United States from the age of 10, had American citizenship, but after graduation he moved to Russia, where he became a well-known investor. In 2007, together with partners, he opened the Soho Rooms nightclub in Moscow, and five years later he returned to America again - according to him, because of his anti-Putin position. In 2016, the businessman moved to Kyiv, where he lived until his death. These are the meager facts from the life of Dan Rapoport - a life sometimes shrouded in no less mystery than his death. At least Dan himself did his best to create a sense of mystery and, admittedly, he succeeded.

Fake "Pentagon analyst"

We met Dan Rapoport at the very beginning of 2015, when he lived in the USA and actively positioned himself as an “old friend” of the fake “Pentagon analyst” David Jewberg. The story with Dzhuberg at one time turned into a rather serious scandal - for several years, the largest Ukrainian media, believing in the reality of this Internet character, took text interviews from him and published his comments, and Russian propaganda, in turn, chose the most aggressive passages of Dzhuberg as an illustration of the aggressive intentions of NATO.

I personally barely managed at the time to convince the Ukrainian TV channel TSN to stop publishing Jewberg - Ukrainian journalists simply could not believe that someone was able to publicly impersonate a Pentagon official for so long without any consequences. The final point in the history of "Jewberg" was put by the journalist Alexey Kuzmenko in 2018, in his investigation for Bellingcat, who collected convincing evidence that it was Rapoport who was the creator of the fake.

However, back in 2015, Dzhuberg, known for his lengthy posts in Russian and his habit of arguing with Russian “trolls” on social networks, quickly won the sympathy of the Russian opposition. By that time I had lived in the USA for only a year, but I already had experience of communicating with American veterans, including army veterans, and therefore the manner of the “Internet analyst” immediately seemed suspicious to me.

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In his discussions with opponents, "Jewberg" was not shy in terms, although it was obvious that no American civil servant would ever allow himself to be harsh and offensive, even speaking as a private person. In addition, the Pentagon, like any state organization, has its own press service, and only it is authorized to speak on its behalf (not counting, of course, its leader). None of the current employees of the organization simply would not have the right to conduct public activities on its behalf, and even constantly publishing “information from closed meetings”, military plans and other information in social networks, which abounded in the posts of “Jewberg”.

"Resident Error"

As a result, I expressed my doubts in correspondence with Dan Rapoport - the only person who personally vouched for "Jewberg". He assured that David is his "friend and brother", as well as "an old acquaintance from the Masonic lodge." At that moment, my friends and I decided that David was definitely not a Pentagon analyst at all, but perhaps a real person who impersonates him, for example, a Russian-speaking veteran of the American army, operating under a pseudonym. One blunder by Rapoport, not mentioned by Bellingcat, contributed to the final debunking of the fake. At the dawn of his activity, "Jewberg" himself admitted that his last name was a pseudonym, but then, apparently, forgot about it. Be that as it may, a few months later he posted on his Facebook page an invitation to an event at the Russian embassy, ​​sent specifically to this fake name. There were only two options here: either Dzhuberg forged the document, or the Russians were aware of the game and played along with the adventurer.

The next suspicious step was calls from Jewberg to share information with him directly through Facebook, moreover, made on behalf of Pentagon intelligence. However, it was obvious that American intelligence would never openly collect information through social networks. One of the most important rules of any special services is the protection of their sources, which in this case was simply impossible.

My friends and I tried several times to find out who was behind the fake "expert" and tried to set up a meeting with him. However, Jewberg avoided such meetings in every possible way, putting forward absurd demands, such as requests to send him your documents for verification. Again, it was clear that American civil servants had the right to request documents only within the framework of official procedures, or, if it was a covert check, they themselves had access to them. In a word, to experienced oppositionists, “Dzhuberg” more and more seemed no longer a harmless fake, but a real Kremlin provocation.

Oppositionist, freemason... romantic?

I shared my disappointing findings with the president of the Free Russia Foundation Natalya Arno and asked what Rapoport had to do with this whole adventure. She not only confirmed my fears, but also directly stated that it was Dan who personally maintained the Jewberg profile. Natalya herself learned about this from our mutual friend, who from the very beginning was aware of the “prank”. Unfortunately, at that time we did not have evidence that it was Rapoport who was Jewberg, so we could not officially declare this. In addition, we could not find the answer, why exactly did he do this?

During that period, I no longer wasted time on the fake "Jewberg" and began to communicate more actively with the "real" Dan Rapoport in order to understand what drives this person. It seemed that, even speaking on his own behalf, Dan continued to play. The game was for him the main essence of his life - he just could not help but splurge. In private correspondence, Deng claimed that he was familiar with all Russian oppositionists and American politicians, stated that he was passing information "personally to Bush", volunteered to be an intermediary in relations with American funds, in a word, he emphasized his "dedication" in every possible way.

He was not trusted in opposition circles. Already aware of the Jewberg hoax, some Russian dissidents living in the US suspected that the creative businessman might be a "double agent." There were rumors that Rapoport often attends receptions at the Russian embassy, ​​and his stories about connections in the United States are greatly exaggerated. However, Dan himself did not seem to be bothered by these rumors. He continued to play his roles and enjoyed the bewilderment of the audience.

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We first met in person in November 2015 in Washington DC. Dan picked me up in a fancy convertible and promptly gave me a tour of the "Masonic places of the capital." It was clear that Freemasonry was his passion. He knew the history of every symbol on every building related to Freemasonry in one way or another. To be honest, Dan did not give the impression of an "FSB agent" - rather, he looked like a merry fellow who was madly in love with life and who liked to play with people and with people. An eternal adventurer, a fan of mystery and symbols, he seemed more romantic than villainous.

Ostap Bender of our time

At that meeting, Rapoport behaved like a partisan, and never confessed to the "creation of Dzhuberg." However, he initiated me into his other fake projects. I remember that Deng created the pages of former Russian diplomats in order to “infiltrate the enemy camp” with their help and sow doubts in him. At the same time, he liked to hint at his supposed connections with the American intelligence services. It seems that spy games were his second passion, no less than freemasonry. It really had a lot of life and energy - more than is needed for one person. And therefore, he splashed it out in his new creations, which he did, it should be admitted, thoroughly, devoting a huge amount of time and effort to them.

I do not know what exactly caused his departure to Kyiv in 2016. Some said that American law enforcement officers became interested in Jewberg (impersonating an official is a crime under American law). If this is true, then Dan's halo of connection with the American intelligence agencies turned out to be as fake as the other stories he told. It seems that we underestimated that we have witnessed the real Ostap Bender of our time. However, we must pay tribute: I have never encountered Dan extorting money from someone using his stories. Rather, he lied from the heart, gratuitously and enjoying the process itself.

After his departure, we completely lost contact, and I cannot guess what caused his death. It could be politics, and finance, and something that we, with our modest imagination, are not even able to imagine. But I in solidarity with his wife that it is impossible to believe in the suicide of a man who loved life so much that he had enough of it for several people - in the truest sense of the word. However, an adventurer and player, Rapoport would hardly want another death. He left just as he lived - under the cloak of secrecy, leaving bewildered viewers to go through possible guesses. Ostap Bender of our time remained true to himself to the end.

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