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Sergey Protosenya was found dead in Spain along with his wife and daughter on Tuesday, police said.
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Novatek, his former company, questioned a working police theory that Protosenya killed his family and then himself.
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Novatek said he was a “great family man” and slammed “speculation” on his death.
The former company of a Russian oligarch who was found dead in Spain along with his wife and child has cast doubt on a prevailing police theory that the deaths were a murder-suicide.
Sergey Protosenya was found hanging in an apartment in Lloret de Mar, a seaside town in Catalonia, Spain, Spanish TV channel Telecinco reported. His wife and daughter were also found dead with stab wounds in the same apartment, the outlet reported.
Homicide-suicide is the primary working theory of the Mossos D’Esquadra, the Catalan police agency investigating the deaths, a spokesman for Lloret De Mar town hall told Insider. The Mossos did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
In a statement Thursday, Novatek, a major Russian natural gas producer, appeared to suggest that the idea that his former employee could be responsible for the deaths “is unrelated to reality”.
“Sergey Protosenya … has established himself as an excellent person and a great family man, a strong professional who has contributed significantly to the formation and development of the company,” it said.
“Unfortunately, speculation has arisen in the media on this topic, but we are convinced that these speculations have nothing to do with reality.”
Novatek referred Insider to this statement without further comment when asked if it referred to the idea that Protosenya could be responsible for the deaths.
When approached by Insider with confirmation from City Hall that the police were considering the murder and suicide theory, which would put the matter beyond media speculation, Novatek’s spokesperson said this was a question for the Mossos.
The Mossos said in a statement on Tuesday that they had been warned of the deaths of three people in Lloret De Mar on Tuesday, without naming the victims. A Mossos spokesperson referred to this statement when Insider asked for comment on Protosenya.
Although Protosenya’s body was found with a bloodied knife and ax nearby, there were no bloodstains on his person and no suicide note, Spanish outlet El Punta Vui reported, citing sources.
El Punta Vui also reported on Thursday that homicide-suicide was the police’s primary theory for the dead.
Based on this, the town hall held a minute of silence on Wednesday in memory of the deceased woman and girl, the spokesman said. Two local equality ministers, Tània Verge and Irene Montero, also called for unity against gender-based violence, the Spanish newspaper La Vangurdia reported.
Protosenya served on Novatek’s board of directors from 1997 to 2015, the company said.
He was retired at the time of his death and had amassed a fortune of approximately $440 million. La Vanguardia reported:citing sources close to the family.
Catalan police are currently combing phone records and security footage of the Protosenya family from the home, El Punta Vui reported.
The discovery of the death of the Protosenya family came a day after another Russian oligarch with connections to the energy industry, Vladislav Avayev, was found dead in his Moscow apartment along with his wife and child.
Avayev was the former vice president of Gazprombank and was found dead from gunshot wounds on Monday, as were his wife and daughter, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported.
There is no evidence of a link between the cases, the agreements of which have nevertheless aroused great international interest.
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