- Tamir Sapir
Tamir Sapir ( _ru. Тимур Сапир, birth name Temur Sepiashvili, _ka. თემურ სეფიაშვილი); *1948/49,
Tbilisi ) is an American immigrant from the former Soviet republic of Georgia who made millions bartering fertilizer and oil with the Soviets in the 1980s.Early life
Sapir was born in the family of a senior military officer in 1948 or 1949 (it's known he was 25 years old when he arrived in the United States). In the early 1970s he studied journalism in Tbilisi university but had to earn money to support his family because of his father's death. His business was to fill out emigration forms and other documents for Soviet Jews.
He and his family (mother and young wife) emigrated to
Israel in1973 but in that time theYom Kippur War emerged and Sapirs (he changed his last name in Israel) moved to theUnited States . Tamir didn't speak English and was employed as a social worker inKentucky . Then he became ataxicab driver inNew York City . Saving up to buy an electronics store, he catered primarily to Russian clientele. Eventually he made contacts with the Soviet contingent to theUnited Nations in New York, and traded electronics for oil contracts, which he then sold to American companies. Investing the profits in Manhattan real estate in the 1990s, he became a billionaire by 2002. [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/R27K.html] Sapir is sometimes referred to as America's "billionaire cabbie."He is well-known in Russia mainly by bringing the suit against a
Moscow oil refinery after it failed the contract and didn't transfer oil products for delivered equipment. Sapir won the case in 2005, but received none of the $28 million the Moscow company was ordered to pay. [ [http://news.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20080124/24jan20080136.html Russia´s Highest Commercial Court Rejects Appeal by Moscow Oil Refinery in Favor of Tamir Sapir´s Joy-Lud ] ]References
* [http://www.forbes.com/2006/01/12/duke-semans-sapir-cx_sc_0113movers_ls.html $40 Million Man] Forbes.com Real Estate News article,
January 12 ,2006
* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/R27K.html #410 Tamir Sapir] The World's Richest People,Forbes Magazine
* [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/381850p-324252c.html Cabbie buys a Duke-dom] New York Daily News,January 10 ,2006
* [http://www.newtimes.ru/eng/detail.asp?art_id=767 Timur Sapir. The Long Road to Wealth] May 2006 interview by NewTimes.ru
* [http://russians.rin.ru/cgi-bin/rus/view.pl?a=fa&id=3507&idr=408&n= Adventures Of Timur Sapir (Rus.) - detailed bio]
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