A $37 billion disappearing act: Russian company Banknota LLC posts record profit, vanishes

Billionaires 'disappearing' isn't unheard of. But have you ever heard of a multi-billion dollar company disappearing without a trace? Well, there's always a first time.

According to multiple media reports, a mystery Russian firm named Banknota LLC posted a whopping $37 billion profit last year—surpassing all Russian firms barring state-owned energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom—but disappeared shortly afterwards.

Set up in 2023 by one Dmitry Frolov, who had charges of petty theft against his name, the unheard of Banknota claimed to be dealing in mortages, car loans, and business-facing loans.

While it avoided most prying eyes, it came under investigation by Russian broadcaster RTVI, which found that not only did the company post unimaginable profits, but that it did not have any offices at registered addresses, and that it lacked a banking licence required for the disbursement of loans.

After its founding, the company did maintain a website and advertised in newspapers, but disappeared without a trace in August this year, with all physical and virtual traces disappearing.

While Banknota's website is down now, it can still be accessed using the Wayback Machine.

Although the firm's disappearance remains a mystery, a bigger mystery is how it hit the astronomical figures it reported in profits last year.

Experts RTVI spoke to said that the numbers posted by Banknota LLC could not have been obtained from mortages, or car loans.

So how did it record such high profits? There's no clarity as of now, but some theories: experts suggested that the company may have made its money by functioning as an intermediary between banks and borrowers, something that doesn't require a licence. However, given the scale of profits, experts told RTVI that it was more likely that the company funneled money abroad before completely disappearing.

There could be some credence to the latter: the company last December had claimed that it had a branch in Belarus, though nothing of the sort was found in Belarusian databases.

The mystery continues.