Igor Sosin: Russian billionaire, 53, whose teen son strangled his own mom with phone cable in 2015, found dead
Russian billionaire Igor Sosin, a COVID-19 survivor, was found dead in Zanzibar, five years after his son strangled his second wife with a phone cable. The retail magnate and portfolio investor had recovered from coronavirus earlier this year. The 53-year-old's death came during a festive holiday with his daughter Taisia and a mystery woman. Sosin had been reportedly going through a divorce with his third wife, at the time of his death. After his family found that he was not waking up, doctors who were called pronounced him dead. The cause of death has not been established yet.
Sosin was known for his love of lavish parties, yachts, tennis and skiing, and was often seen on the Cote d'Azur resorts. He was known to have once spent several million pounds on a collection of dresses belonging to Sharon Stone which he gifted to one of his wives. In the US, he would rent a luxury house on Ox Pasture Lane in Southampton for almost £650,000 - a property of 10 acres, two pools and a 50ft water foundtain. He had also held a Juy 4 party at the property.
It was in 2013, when Sosin is reported to have paid more than 200,000 for Truman's Capote 1958 typed manuscript of 'Breafast at Tiffany's'. The family had suffered much tragedy earlier, when his son Egor, had strangled and repeatedly struck Sosin's second wife Anastasia with a phone charger cable. He had confessed to the killing saying that he wanted to 'expel' the devil from inside her, when they stayed at a hotel in Kazan. He was not subjected to trial, as he was diagnosed with unspecified 'acute mental disorder'. He was released from a specialist psychiatric hospital after receiving psychiatric treatment.
Egor said that his mother had tried propositioning him for sex. He 'knocked back' her advances, and is said to have throttled her to death for half an hour, before hitting her in the face for at least 20 times. Egor reportedly told state investigators: "I had been choking her about half an hour. Satisfied that she had died, I sat on her and began to punch her with all my force."
It wasi n 1994, together with his partners Artur Popelnyukhov and Grigory Kozhemyakin, Sosin had founded the Starik Hottabych chain. In 2000, Sosin left the project and started developing Sdelay svoimi rukami (Do it yourself), a joint venture with the OBI network. In 2016, Igor Sosin had sold 49% in the joint venture. Recently, he had been developing the Modi household goods chain, and the first stores opened in Russia in 2017. He was also a former co-owner of OBI hypermarkets and had also brought household goods and do-it-yourself stores to the Russian market, as well as branched into pet stores.
Sosin had recovered from coronavirus several months ago. He had planned to celebrate the New Year in Zanzibar. His estranged third wife, Inna, was flying back to Moscow from a trip to the Bahamas after receiving news of his death.