Boris Iosifovich Mints (; born 24 July 1958) is a Russian oligarch with interests in real estate and finance, and co-founder of Otkritie FC Bank. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
He has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Early life
Boris Mints was born in a Jewish family in Rybnitsa, Moldavian SSR, USSR (now Moldova), to military engineer Major Joseph Samuilovich Mints (born 1932, in Nevel), and librarian Lusia Izrailevna Milter (1936–2007, Kodyma, Ukrainian SSR). Gershkovich Milter (1901–1944).
In 1980, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Ivanovo State University. Mints has a PhD in technical sciences and is an associate professor of higher mathematics.
Career
Mints’ career began at the , where he worked from 1983 until 1990. Simultaneously, between 1987 and 1990, Mints worked at a Youth Center for Scientific Creativity.
Mints was appointed vice mayor of Ivanovo in 1990 and chaired the city property management committee (CPMC) until 1994. During this time, Mints met Anatoly Chubais, chairman of State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management, and moved to Moscow to work at the State Property Committee.
Between 1994 and 1996, Mints worked as head of the main department of Public Assets Ministry of the Russian Federation. From 1996 until 2000, Mints was the head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Issues of Local Governance and Secretary of the Council for Local Government in the Russian Federation, chaired by the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.
In the early 2000s, Mints was the head of the executive committee and finance and budget committee of political party “Union of Right Forces”. Between 2001 and 2003, he was also the general director of REN TV.
In 2003, Mints decided to join forces with Vadim Belyaev to develop “VEO-Otkritie”. In accordance with the partnership agreement, Mints bought 50% of the new company, Investment Group Otkritie” Ltd., which was officially founded in 2004. Mr. Belyaev became CEO of the company, and Mints was appointed chairman of the board of directors. Mints was also chairman of Otkritie Financial Corporation from 2004 until 2013 and held the position of president from 2012 until 2013. In 2013, Mints ceased to be a shareholder of the Otkritie Financial Corporation, upon the sale of his shares to other partners.
In 2004, Mints founded the O1 Group investment company, which owns and manages assets in real estate and financial sectors. In 2010, Mints founded the investment company O1 Properties for managing real estate assets. At the end of 2017, O1 Properties was the 6th largest owner of commercial real estate in Russia. In 2013, the O1 Group began acquiring pension business assets and until the middle of 2017 concluded deals to purchase NPF Telecom-Soyuz, NPF Stalfond, NPF Blagosostoyanie OPS, NPF Uralsib, NPF Obrazovaniye, NPF Our Future, NPF Socialnoe Razvitie.
Between 2014 and 2015, he acquired shares in the Austrian companies CA Immo and Immofinanz. CA Immo owns and manages commercial property in Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe.
In October 2016, the Future Financial Group held a public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares of FG Future on the Moscow stock exchange.
In September 2018, Boris Mints sold O1 Properties and the Future Financial Group (includes NPF Future).
Mints is also a member of the board of directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Mints is one of many "Russian oligarchs" named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.
In March 2017, Forbes estimated Boris Mints' wealth at over $1.3 billion.
Otkritie bank administration and legal case
In July 2017, the Russian ratings agency ARCA gave Otkritie FC Bank a BBB- rating, preventing it from raising funds, and triggering an outflow of deposits. In August 2017, Otkritie had entered into a restructuring transaction when the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) intervened and took the bank into temporary administration. The following bailout of Otkritie required over $8 billion. In October 2017, Otkritie, now managed by the CBR, initiated a claim against 10 respondents including the O1 Group.